Cross Frontier Group urges negotiators to push on and seal a good treaty for Gib and the Campo

The Cross Frontier Group has urged negotiators from the UK and the EU to reach an agreement satisfactory to all parties by the new scheduled date, even as it highlighted the uncertainty faced by workers as treaty talks stretch into 2022.

The group was commenting following new last week that negotiations for a treaty on the Rock’s post-Brexit future with the bloc will continue in the New Year, with the aim of reaching agreement in the first quarter.

Despite the technical and political difficulties implicit in the negotiations, the Cross Frontier Group hoped the outcome of the negotiations will make the proclaimed area of shared prosperity a reality.

“For the Cross Frontier Group, the news of the prolonging of the negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom on Gibraltar until the first quarter of next year also means that the climate of uncertainty in which workers and companies on both sides of the border find themselves is also extended,” the group said in a statement.

“In this regard, the Cross Frontier Group has wanted to urge the negotiators to conclude the agreement by the new date that has been set and that the Agreement encompasses the demands of this group, in its capacity as a representative of civil society of both territories.”

“In the last month, the Cross Frontier Group has written to all of the parties involved in this negotiation asking them for a satisfactory agreement that provides the area with stability in our relations and which in turn serves to further enhance our economies and the well-being of our citizens.”

“The business and trade union organisations that make up the group have thanked the Foreign Minister of Spain and the Foreign Minister of the United Kingdom for extending the memorandums until the signing of the new agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom.”

“We are aware of the complexity of the treaty that is to be signed and the framework in which the negotiating process is taking place; but we want to be reasonably optimistic insofar as agreements have already been signed by the parties which set out the key elements which will sustain the new framework of future relations.”