relationship between Gibraltar

The UK’s desire to reset post-Brexit relations with the European Union could depend on reaching an agreement over the future of Gibraltar, according to Spain’s foreign minister.

London and Madrid have been in talks for years in a bid to strike a deal to ensure people and goods can keep flowing over the British overseas territory’s land border with Spain.

The UK left the EU in 2020 with the relationship between Gibraltar and the bloc unresolved, although it was agreed that the outpost would stay part of agreements such as the border-free Schengen Area while a permanent solution was negotiated.

Next week, the UK is hosting a summit with EU leaders at which Prime Minister Keir Starmer is aiming to seal a new security pact with the bloc and improve ties post-Brexit

However, speaking to the BBC on Monday, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said that a clear deal about Gibraltar’s future could be crucial to resetting UK-EU relations.

“The relationship between UK and European Union is a comprehensive relationship, a global relationship, not just a pick-and-choose relationship,” he said. “There are many, many things that we have to talk (about), Gibraltar included

“There is no agreement. It’s not resolved yet. We need to solve the issue of Gibraltar in order to have a full European Union-UK relationship,” Albares told the BBC.

One sticking point is the question of who controls Gibraltar’s airport, which under the proposed free-movement deal would be an external border of the EU.

London and Gibraltar have resisted Madrid’s insistence that Spanish border officials be based at the airport, which is also home to a Royal Air Force base.

Gibraltar was ceded to the UK in 1713, but Spain has maintained its sovereignty claim ever since

In the 2016 Brexit referendum, 96% of voters in Gibraltar supported remaining in the EU. The British territory depends greatly on access to the EU market for its approximately 34,000 inhabitants.