‘UK wins, Spain loses’ - Feijoo

“The United Kingdom wins and Spain loses.”

That was the assessment made by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of Spain’s Partido Popular, on the UK/EU treaty on Gibraltar’s post-Brexit relations with the bloc.

He was speaking at a Forum Europa breakfast briefing in Madrid organised by Nueva Economia Forum, during which he also said the PP believed the agreement should be ratified by all EU national parliaments, and not just the European Parliament.

“This is complicated,” he said, asked for his thoughts on the treaty.

“We are making an agreement, under the umbrella of the European Union, on Gibraltar.”

We have studied that agreement. It is more than 600 pages in English. It is not translated.”

“And we have seen that the United Kingdom wins and Spain loses.”

“Gibraltar becomes a European Union territory, when the UK has decided to leave the EU.”

Pressed on his party’s position, Mr Feijoo referred to the EU’s ratification process.

The European Commission has recommended that this should be an EU-only agreement, rather than a mixed agreement that must be voted in EU national parliaments as well as the European Parliament.

The European Council, which must give the Commission approval for it to sign the agreement and allow for its provisional implementation while it is considered by the European Parliament, has yet to say whether it agrees the treaty should be an EU-only agreement.

“What is our position? Very clear,” Mr Feijoo said.

“This is a mixed agreement, it is not an EU-UK agreement.”

“Spain has to be part of this agreement, and it is the Spanish Parliament that has to ratify international treaties.”

“And this has to be taken to Parliament. And it has to be voted on in Parliament.”

“And the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister have to explain this agreement to the Spanish people as a whole.”

“And [the Government] has to set out, within the 600 pages we have studied, both the economic part of the arrangement and the international part, to the Congress, to the Opposition.”

“And then the parliamentary groups will be able to take a position.”

“We have conveyed this very clearly to the European People’s Party, we have conveyed it to European chanceries.”

“This agreement has to be dealt with in the Congress of Deputies because it is a mixed agreement, in the same way that the French asked for the Andorra matter to be a mixed agreement and to be discussed in the French National Assembly.”

“Therefore, this is our position and it is a position, I reiterate, in defence of our country’s interests.”

“Because we have no interests other than the interests of the country, and that allows us to speak calmly about this matter.”