PP wants MEPs to reject Gib treaty despite EPP support

The Partido Popular has called on the European Parliament to reject ratification of the Gibraltar treaty, even though the European People’s Party, of which the PP is a member, has already indicated support for the agreement. 

The European Parliament is set to vote on the treaty on December 14, with MEPs asked only to consent or reject its ratification. They cannot propose amendments to the treaty text itself. 

Two MEPs asked to prepare a report ahead of that vote - Thijs Reuten from the parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Nina Carberry from the Committee on International Trade - have proposed a draft legislative resolution recommending MEPs give consent to the treaty. 

But on Tuesday, six PP MEPs tabled an amendment to that draft resolution asking the European Parliament to refuse its consent to the full conclusion of the Gibraltar agreement, which is currently only in provisional application. 

Recent developments, however, suggest the PP may struggle to find political support for its amendment. 

A parliamentary debate earlier this month offered a clear indication that MEPs are on course to consent to the treaty’s ratification, with numerous blocs signalling backing for the treaty. 

That includes the EPP, the PP’s political group in the European Parliament. 

“On behalf of the EPP group, we support this agreement after several years of complex negotiations,” said David Mcallister, a German MEP and senior figure in the EPP, during the first European parliamentary debate on the Gibraltar treaty. 

“It provides a comprehensive and pragmatic framework for future relationship concerning Gibraltar and brings greater legal certainty for citizens, businesses and cross-border workers.” 

He said the EPP, which is the largest bloc in the European Parliament with 188 MEPs, saw the treaty as “an important step towards greater stability, economic integration and practical EU-UK cooperation”. 

PP MEPs have long complained about the treaty as a “missed opportunity” for Spain to advance its sovereignty aspirations, voicing concern too that it should be voted on in national parliaments and not just in the European Parliament. 

That position has been echoed by Vox in more strident terms. 

But the signatories to the treaty are the EU and the UK, and the agreement comes at a time when London and Brussels are trying to rebuild and strengthen relations after Brexit and against the backdrop of war in Ukraine and global upheaval. 

Barry Cowan, an Irish MEP with Fianna Fail and the shadow rapporteur for the Renew group in the parliament, said during the debate that the agreement offered “a wider lesson” for UK-EU relations and that Brexit was a reality that both sides could not “spend forever relitigating”. 

“Where cooperation makes both sides more prosperous, secure and competitive, we should obviously pursue it,” he said. 

The treaty also demonstrated that “geography eventually defeats political ideology”. 

“Gibraltar may have left the European Union through Brexit, but it certainly didn't move,” Mr Cowan said at the time. 

“The agreement before us, therefore, is a victory for pragmatism.” 

Other blocs in parliament also signalled support for the treaty, including the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the second-largest group in the European Parliament with 136 MEPs. 

Andalusian Socialist MEP Lina Galvez Muñoz said during the debate this month that the treaty “… deserves our support because, above all, it delivers concrete solutions to concrete problems partly inherited from history and partly from Brexit.” 

Where cooperation can deliver tangible benefits for citizens, “we should always be pragmatic and ambitious”. 

“This is precisely the kind of cooperation we should pursue, practical, mutually beneficial and anchored European standards,” she told MEPs. 

And she added: “The framework is now in place. The border is open. Our task is to make sure that the commitments are fully implemented, respected, and the citizens actually benefit from that.” 

The treaty must also be ratified by the UK Parliament under the Constitutional Reform and Governance (CRAG) Act 2010 procedure, which gives MPs 21 sitting days to scrutinise the treaty text. 

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. 

The formal process commenced at the end of July but the clock was paused during the summer recess and again for the party conference season, when the UK Parliament does not sit. 

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 enjoys strong cross-party support in the House of Commons, though some MPs have underlined the need for detailed scrutiny of a complex agreement that has far-reaching implications.