UK parliament commences formal treaty scrutiny, breaks included

The European Affairs Committee in the House of Lords this week confirmed it has commenced formal scrutiny of the UK/EU treaty on Gibraltar, but the parliamentary calendar means the ratification process will likely drag out until at least October.

The confirmation came in a letter on Tuesday from committee chair Lord Stirrup to Ed Miliband, who was this week appointed Foreign Secretary as part of the reshuffle under Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

In the letter, crossbench peer Lord Stirrup congratulated Mr Miliband on his appointment and said the committee looked forward the working closely with him and other ministers “given the importance the government has placed on the UK/EU relationship”.

“Following the laying in Parliament of the UK/EU Agreement on Gibraltar on 14 July 2026, I can also confirm that the Committee has started its formal parliamentary scrutiny under the terms imposed by the Constitutional Reform and Governance (CRAG) Act 2010,” he added.

“As you know, we have 21 sitting days to conclude our task, and we are therefore looking forward to a public evidence session with the relevant Government Minister in September 2026.”

The committee has already written to Chief Minister Fabian Picardo requesting that he appear before it to give evidence.

Under the CRAG process, the UK Government cannot ratify a treaty unless it has first laid a signed copy before Parliament for 21 sitting days, along with an explanatory memorandum.

If, during those 21 days, the Commons passes a resolution that the treaty should not be ratified, another 21-sitting-day delay to ratification is triggered.

This process may be repeated continuously, though no such resolution not to ratify a treaty has ever been passed by the Commons, where Gibraltar in any case enjoys broad cross-party support.

A House of Lords resolution against ratification does not delay ratification.

The clock on the 21-day countdown started when the treaty was laid in the UK Parliament, but the summer recess started two days later.

That means that when MPs and peers return on September 1, there will still be 19 sitting days during which the agreement can be debated.

The UK Parliament however will recess again on September 16 for the party conference season, returning on October 12.

For the CRAG procedure in respect of the Gibraltar treaty, that leaves 12 sitting days in September before the conference recess and another seven after MPs return in October.

That means the earliest that the treaty will be ratified is in the third week of October when the CRAG timeline elapses, and assuming there is no resolution opposing it.

The treaty must also be ratified by the European Parliament, where the Gibraltar file will be jointly handled by two parliamentary committees, the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on International Trade.

The process to be followed is the consent procedure, which only allows MEPs a yes or no vote, rather than opportunity to influence the text of the treaty.

Although the schedule for the prior discussion process has yet to be finalised, a Brussels source told the Chronicle that the vote itself will likely take place in the first half of December.

A no vote would not automatically and immediately end provisional application but would likely trigger renewed negotiations or a political process to find a way forward.

The agreement has the support of the Spanish Government, the European Commission and the 27 EU members on the European Council, which should help its passage through the parliamentary process.

But it will also face resistance from Spanish opposition parties, which have rejected the agreement during debates in the Spanish Parliament.