Albares visits border and says treaty will benefit communities on both sides 

By Maria Jesus Corrales 

Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, visited ongoing infrastructure works on the La Línea side of the border on Thursday during a packed visit to the Campo de Gibraltar. 

Hours after Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told a high-profile breakfast briefing in Madrid that the treaty would benefit communities on both sides of the border, the message was echoed at the border by Mr Albares, who a day earlier had welcomed Mr Picardo to his official residence in Madrid. 

The treaty would create a framework in which “what benefits the Campo will benefit Gibraltar, and what benefits Gibraltar will also benefit the Campo”, Mr Albares said. 

Mr Albares said work at the frontier was progressing at a good pace ahead of July 15, that date on which the treaty is expected to enter provisional implementation. 

“Everything will be ready for July 15, he said. 

“We are working so that all the technical requirements are already operating that day.” 

Reflecting on what he described as “a historic moment`’, Mr Albares said a “single area of prosperity and common security” was starting to take shape under “a new model of coexistence”. 

He said the cross-border relationship was “being transformed” and two communities “who used to live with their backs to one another are now shaking hands”. 

Mr Albares also referred to his meeting with Mr Picardo at the Palace de Viana in Madrid on Wednesday, describing it as “normal”. 

“Gibraltar is moving towards a shared future and it is normal that we share these meetings,” he said. 

Mr Albares said La Línea would have been the Spanish city most affected by a hard Brexit had an agreement not been reached. 

After visiting the border works, Mr Albares visited La Línea city council where he met with the mayor, Juan Franco. 

Mr Franco later said he was satisfied by Mr Albares’s confirmation that the treaty provided for the equalisation of pensions between Gibraltar and Spain, a key issue for the city’s cross-border workers. 

He also welcomed the inclusion of an independent environmental assessment body to guarantee compliance with European standards. 

In addition, Mr Franco said Mr Albares had committed “to convey to the Ministry of Finance the possibility of having a special tax area”, which he described as a longstanding demand of La Línea and the Campo. 

“Let us hope these matters begin to take shape and that some problems that concerned us greatly, such as the situation of pensioners, become realities,” Mr Franco said. 

Mr Albares later opened a technical seminar on the treaty at the Campo Chamber of Commerce in Algeciras, attended by Campo mayors as well as political, social and economic representatives from across the region. 

There, he described the treaty as “a success for everyone” and “a historic agreement that all democratic governments in Spain have sought and which, at last, has been achieved”. 

He said the agreement would open “a new stage of coexistence”, remove inequalities from the past, promote the free movement of people and goods, guarantee the current and future rights of cross-border workers and improve connectivity in the Campo de Gibraltar. 

Mr Albares said the treaty would improve the lives of citizens “open doors that had been closed for centuries in order to look to the future”.