EU legal review nears end as Gibraltar treaty moves toward signature  

The European Council is close to formally adopting the UK/EU treaty on Gibraltar, clearing the way for its signature ahead of the July 15 target date for provisional implementation. 

The Council’s Committee of Permanent Representatives, known as COREPER, agreed the texts of the agreement and decisions of signature and provisional application last April. 

But formal adoption by the Council is subject to completion of an ongoing legal review by lawyer-linguists of the treaty text in the EU’s 24 official languages. 

That has yet to be completed, though “it’s a matter of short time”, an EU official told the Chronicle. 

“The plan is to go to COREPER either on 29 June or 1 July, with a subsequent adoption by the Council on 30 June or 2 July, depending on when it passes from COREPER,” the official said. 

“Formal adoption will be via a written procedure as there are no ‘useful’ meetings or sessions to do that in the beginning of July.” 

Formal adoption by the Council is a necessary step before the treaty can be signed, clearing the way for its provisional implementation from July 15. 

Spanish media reported this week that the agreement could be signed on July 13 in Brussels, though this has not yet been confirmed. 

While the July 13 date has been mooted, the Chronicle understands the date and location of the signing of the treaty have not yet been fixed. 

The agreement is between the UK and the EU, making it likely that it will be signed either in London or Brussels, and probably by UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and EU Commissioner Maros Sefcovic. 

But fixing a date is not straightforward because it involves coordinating the diaries of senior figures not just in the UK Government and the Commission, but in Gibraltar and Spain too. 

All negotiating parties will want to be represented at what is regarded as a historic moment that will create the legal framework for a new relationship between Gibraltar, Spain and the wider EU. 

The agreement comes too at a time when the UK and the EU are working to rebuild their relationship a decade after Brexit, with the Gibraltar treaty already cited as an example of what can be achieved with cooperation and goodwill. 

The EU and the UK have announced they will hold their next summit to discuss the “reset” in relations between London and Brussels on July 22. 

The summit, which will be held in Brussels, has been delayed several times, with talks over a youth mobility scheme allowing under-30s to work, travel or study in each other’s territory deadlocked in recent weeks, fuelling speculation the summit could be postponed until the autumn. 

Other key topics on the agenda are an agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary checks, something that would benefit Gibraltar in relation to UK food imports.