Negotiators must ‘double down’ and agree Gib treaty, Šefčovič says

Negotiators for a UK/EU treaty on Gibraltar have made “steady progress” and must now “double down” to agree a deal, the senior official overseeing the talks for the European Commission said on Tuesday.

The public comment from Maroš Šefčovič, Europe’s Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, followed a meeting with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

“A good stocktaking with @DavidLammy on Gibraltar,” Mr Šefčovič wrote on X.

“We're making steady progress, thanks to the intense work of our teams.”

“Now we need to double down to resolve the final issues and get the negotiations over the line.”

The tweet is unusual because Mr Šefčovič, who has overseen UK/EU relations for the Commission both in his current and previous roles, has only rarely commented publicly about the Gibraltar treaty negotiation.

It comes against the backdrop of speculation that negotiators may be close to agreeing a deal, and just weeks before the UK is to host a critical summit with EU members on May 19 to discuss re-setting its relationship with the bloc after Brexit.

The Gibraltar, UK and Spain governments have repeatedly signalled their desire to reach an agreement that will protect the interests of communities on both sides of the border, even while cautioning about the complexity of the negotiation and resisting imposing any deadlines.

Even so, all eyes are now on May 19 though it remains unclear whether a deal can be reached before or around that date.

From the outset, and despite repeated calls for an end to Gibraltar’s post-Brexit uncertainty, all sides have kept the detail of the talks and any remaining stumbling blocks closely under wraps to protect the integrity of a difficult and protracted negotiation.

The meeting between Mr Šefčovič and Mr Lammy in London on Tuesday was on the sidelines of discussions on wider issues including the Windsor Framework and the Withdrawal Agreement.

UK ministers met with the EU’s trade chief in London amid leaks of a mooted UK-EU agreement on “free and open trade” in the face of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

On Wednesday, Mr Lammy said closer ties between the UK and the EU would be mutually beneficial, as he echoed too Mr Šefčovič's sentiment on the Gibraltar treaty.

"Closer ties between the UK and the EU are in all of our interests, making our continent and our people safer, more secure and more prosperous," he said on X.

"@MarosSefcovic and I discussed strengthening our shared security and steady progress towards a treaty on Gibraltar."

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister in charge of EU negotiations, co-chaired the EU-UK Joint Committee with Mr Sefcovic on Tuesday during the EU trade commissioner’s first official visit to the UK since the Labour Government came into power.

They pointed to EU citizens’ rights in the UK under the settlement scheme and timely implementation of the Windsor Framework to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland as some of their shared priorities.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds also met with Mr Sefcovic.

Mr Sefcovic called it a “productive exchange on securing balanced trade relationships” and said they discussed “the state of international trade and the road ahead” in another post on X.

Mr Thomas-Symonds said the talks provided an opportunity “to take stock of negotiations and the progress made”.

There have been reports that a draft joint statement being drawn up ahead of the May summit will outline “shared principles of maintaining global economic stability”.

The document reportedly says: “We confirmed our shared principles of maintaining global economic stability and our mutual commitment to free and open trade.”

It adds that both sides would “continue working on how we can mitigate the impact of fluctuations in the global economic order” and commits the UK and Brussels to “multilateralism”.

The draft is also said to refer to “keeping the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C within reach”.

It is understood to make no explicit mention of the US president, though its wording appears to go against Mr Trump’s commitment to trade restrictions.

A UK Government spokesperson said: “The Government rejects the premise that it must choose between our European and American allies.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesperson said he would not get into speculation about the EU summit.

“But we’ve always been clear that we want to strengthen our relationship with the EU across the economy, security and defence.

“We’ve always been in favour of lower trade barriers – that is consistent with what the Prime Minister and Chancellor have said.”

The summit in May is to be hosted by the UK and comes as Sir Keir Starmer continues to seek a carve-out with the US that would mitigate the impact of Mr Trump’s sweeping 10% tariffs on goods entering America.

Sir Keir has repeatedly rejected suggestions that the UK will need to choose between partnerships with Europe or America, saying the national interest “demands that we work with both”.

But ministers have signalled Britain will need to look to strengthen trading ties with other countries following Mr Trump’s introduction of import taxes.

PA contributed reporting for this article.