Albares points to ‘substantive progress’ in treaty talks, to opposition scepticism

Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, on Monday pointed to “substantive progress” in the negotiation for a UK/EU treaty on Gibraltar, although he added no detail on the talks and drew opposition scepticism during separate interventions in both houses of the Spanish parliament.

Mr Albares was speaking during sessions of the Foreign Affairs Committees in both the Congress and the Senate in Madrid, where he presented the Spanish government’s latest foreign affairs strategy document.

The references to Gibraltar, both by the ministers, MPs and senators, were few and succinct, and offered little of substance.

The exchanges in both committees were dominated by issues such as the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza, relations with Morocco and countries in south and Latin America, and the impact of US tariffs at a time when China and Asian countries were gaining increased prominence on the global stage.

It was a clear reminder of the wider context of global upheaval in which the Gibraltar negotiation is taking place, and the competing demands faced by the governments of the UK and Spain as well as by the European Union.

On all of these wider issues, Mr Albares said Spanish foreign policy had at its core a commitment to multilateralism based on the international rule of law, alongside a defence of human rights and democracy at a time when many countries were drifting to populism, authoritarianism and protectionism.

“Now is a time for dialogue and bridge building,” Mr Albares said, highlighting within that the importance to Spain of close relations with the UK including on defence and security.

Mr Albares skirted over the Gibraltar negotiation, which figures just briefly in the foreign affairs strategy document.

“There has been substantive progress in recent months in all areas of the negotiation, from the movement of people to bring down the last fence in western Europe, the last wall, to the movement of goods needed to create the area of shared prosperity we are aiming for,” Mr Albares said of the Gibraltar negotiation.

He said there had been progress too on taxation and environmental issues to achieve a treaty that was “fair and balanced for all”.

Mr Albares said “Spain wants this agreement”, a refrain that has figured repeatedly in all his public interventions on this subject over the past year.

The references to the Gibraltar negotiation, while brief, were sufficient to draw flak from opposition MPs and senators on the political right.

In the Congress on Monday morning, Vox MP Carlos Flores said Mr Albares had been championing an agreement on Gibraltar for two years but the Spanish parliament had yet to see anything tangible from the negotiation.

“We remain stuck in ambiguity,” Mr Flores said. “We remain stuck in opacity.”

Mr Albares rejected this position, insisting MPs in the Congress were “well aware” of the goal of the negotiation, which he said centred on achieving free movement of people and goods after Brexit while respecting Spain’s traditional position on Gibraltar and sovereignty.

“The goal is to turn the day-to-day reality between Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar into a formal treaty, and we are working on that together with the European Commission,” he said.

“That is what we are aiming for [and] I hope you agree with that.”

Mr Albares said he had appeared before the parliament seven times in nine months and met regularly with Campo mayors, the Junta de Andalucia and economic stakeholders to hear their views and engage with them.

“You keep repeating the mantra that you don’t know anything [but] the truth is, you’d rather not know,” Mr Albares said.

The scene was repeated on Monday evening in the Spanish Senate, where the Vox senator Angel Pelayo Gordillo Moreno told Mr Albares: “There are no advances and you know it.”

The PP senator Iñigo Fernandez said almost nine years had passed since the Brexit referendum and over five years since the Withdrawal Agreement, but there was still no deal on Gibraltar.

“There may be advances, but there are no results,” Mr Fernandez said, as he asked the minister for details on the remaining stumbling blocks and what was being proposed by Spain, Gibraltar and the UK.

In his reply, Mr Albares dismissed the suggestion of little progress in the talks, adding with irony: “If you say so.”

He gave no further detail, save to rebuff complaints that the Campo mayors were not directly involved in the talks.

The Spanish government was responsible for the foreign relations of the Campo, he said, while Gibraltar “is an overseas territory still to be decolonised and with the relation [with the UK] that it has”.

The exchanges in the Spanish parliament came amid speculation that treaty negotiators may be close to agreeing a deal, and just days 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.

Last week Maroš Šefčovič, Europe’s Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy both signalled “steady progress” in the Gibraltar negotiation after a “stocktaking” discussion in London on the sidelines of UK/EU meeting on wider issues including the Windsor Framework and the Withdrawal Agreement.

“We're making steady progress, thanks to the intense work of our teams,” Mr Šefčovič, who oversees the Gibraltar negotiation for the European Commission, said of the talks.

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

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 and respect each side’s red lines, even while cautioning about the complexity of the negotiation and resisting imposing any deadlines.

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