{"id":791369,"date":"2026-02-27T00:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T00:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/791369\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T00:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T00:24:18","slug":"spain-to-check-gibraltar-arrivals-under-post-brexit-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/791369\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain to check Gibraltar arrivals under post-Brexit deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK is to allow Spanish border guards to check the passports of travellers to Gibraltar, under a deal with the EU to create an open land border with Spain. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The extra Spanish checks, to be carried out at the Rock’s airport and port, have been confirmed in a 1,000-page draft treaty published on Thursday, News.az<\/a> reports, citing BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The agreement is designed to bring certainty to the British overseas territory<\/a> nearly a decade after the Brexit vote threw its status into doubt.<\/p>\n

It is due to come into force in April, when stricter controls at the border of the passport-free Schengen zone are due to come fully into force.<\/p>\n

Under the deal, Gibraltar will not officially join the zone, made up of 29 mainly EU countries including Spain.<\/p>\n

Instead, Spanish authorities will carry out a “second line” of Schengen border controls, following immigration checks conducted by Gibraltar officials.<\/p>\n

Spanish guards will have powers to arrest, search and interview travellers “where it is justified in the course of border control,” according to the treaty.<\/p>\n

The system should eventually allow for the removal of ‘La Verja’, the 1.2km (0.7 mile) chain link fence along Gibraltar’s land border with Spain, which is crossed every day by around half of the Rock’s workforce.<\/p>\n

It would mean the disappearance of “the last wall in continental Europe,” said Spanish Foreign Minister Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares in a video clip welcoming the deal.<\/p>\n

The UK government is likening the new system to that in operation at London’s St Pancras station, where Eurostar passengers are checked by both British and French border officials.<\/p>\n

British nationals make up a huge share of visitors travelling to Gibraltar for tourism, representing 86.5% of all departures from its airport in 2024, according to the territory’s most recent tourism survey.<\/p>\n

Since Brexit, Spain has allowed Gibraltar residents to cross the border without having their passports stamped, but there have been periodic complaints from Gibraltar about Spanish police tightening checks.<\/p>\n

From April, Spain had been due to apply the EU’s new automated border system, including biometric checks, at the border with Gibraltar, which the UK says would “devastate” Gibraltar’s economy.<\/p>\n

Fabian Picardo, the territory’s chief minister,\u00a0<\/b>has welcomed the agreement, adding it delivers “the certainty our people and businesses need”.<\/p>\n

Gibraltar’s government says it is hoping to provisionally apply the deal from 10 April, the date when the EU’s new border system is scheduled to become fully operational after several previous setbacks.<\/p>\n

The deal will see the territory join the EU’s customs union, and align its import taxes to those applied by Spain.<\/p>\n

Although Gibraltar will keep its zero-VAT regime, it will charge a new “transaction tax” on the customs value of goods imported into or made in the territory for sale there, which will start at 15% and rise to 17% by 2028.<\/p>\n

Picardo told BBC Radio 4’s World At One it would mean some products in Gibraltar “might become a little more expensive” but said the agreement overall would increase traffic to the territory’s shops.<\/p>\n

News.Az<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Faig Mahmudov<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK is to allow Spanish border guards to check the passports of travellers to Gibraltar, under a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,230124,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-791369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-spain-to-check-gibraltar-arrivals-under-post-brexit-deal","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116139751310482367","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}