EU completes formal adoption of treaty and clears way for signing

The EU formally adopted the UK/EU treaty on Gibraltar on Wednesday evening, clearing the way for the European Commission to sign the agreement ahead of the July 15 target date for provisional implementation.

This was the final formal step needed before the EU was ready to enter into the agreement.

The deal must still be ratified by both the UK and European parliaments but once signed it can be provisionally implemented pending completion of that parliamentary process.

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo acknowledged the significance of Wednesday’s decision by EU member states.

“This is the moment when the EU side have crossed the Rubicon,” he told the Chronicle.

“They are now ready to sign.”

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

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

With that review completed, COREPER approved the decision on signing and provisional application earlier this week and authorised the use of the written procedure for its formal adoption by the Council, an EU official told the Chronicle.

The COREPER decision was formally adopted by written procedure on Wednesday even with a short extension of the deadline for the replies by member states.

Logistically, that could have proved “a real challenge” as all the 27 member states need to back the decision in writing within the set deadline, the official added.

With the EU approval process now completed, the focus is on finalising the logistical arrangements for the treaty to be signed before July 15.

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

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 or Europe Minister Stehpen Doughty on the UK side,  and EU Commissioner Maros Sefcovic on the European side.

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.

Details of the practical arrangements around the signing of the treaty are expected to be confirmed and announced in the coming days.