Third Brussels summit confirmed for Thursday, as Lammy and Albares signal treaty hopes during wide-ranging London meeting

Negotiators for a UK/EU treaty on Gibraltar’s post-Brexit relations with the bloc will hold another four-way political summit in Brussels on Thursday to continue the work toward an agreement.

The meeting, the third of its kind, will bring together UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares, European Commission vice president Maroš Šefčovič and Chief Minister Fabian Picardo, as well as their respective negotiating teams.

Thursday’s meeting had been provisionally pencilled in for some time and was confirmed on Monday afternoon following a meeting in London between Mr Lammy and Mr Albares.

The meeting in Brussels will be in the same format as the two previous ones but will be the first one attended by Mr Lammy, who succeeded Lord Cameron as Foreign Secretary after Labour’s general election win last July.

The two earlier summits, in April and May, failed to seal the deal despite wide expectation, although all sides signalled “important breakthroughs” at the time.

Technical work in the negotiation has continued since then, but Thursday will be the first meeting at ministerial level since the UK election.

“I look forward to continuing the work of seeking agreement for a UK / EU Treaty on Gibraltar's future relationship with the EU,” the Chief Minister said in a statement.

“We still have technical issues to resolve but I remain optimistic that a safe and secure agreement is possible that will be beneficial to all and that will bring renewed and enhanced prosperity to the whole region.”

Ahead of Monday’s UK/Spain meeting in 1 Carlton Gardens, the Foreign Secretary’s residence in London, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office [FCDO] said Mr Lammy and Mr Albares would discuss “the full spectrum of the UK-Spain bilateral relationship”.

Within that context, the FCDO said at the weekend that Mr Lammy was “keen to understand” first hand from Mr Albares Spain’s position in the Gibraltar negotiation, but made clear this was only a discussion.

“There will be no negotiations with respect to Gibraltar on Monday, or at any meeting with the Spanish at which the Government of Gibraltar is not present,” an FCDO spokesperson said at the time.

Speaking to reporters on Monday as Mr Albares arrived in 1 Carlton House, Mr Lammy said the UK and Spain shared “an important historic relationship”.

“We cooperate on a range of issues, and particularly at this time, with a new government determined to have a reset with Europe, it is very important for us to be partnering and to be engaging with Spain at this moment on central issues of security,” the Foreign Secretary said.

“With war in Europe particularly, having just come back from Ukraine, I’m looking forward to discussing these issues today, particularly as we head to the UN General Assembly.”

“But also, there's more that we can do together between Spain and the UK, particularly, I think, on climate and energy as we discuss these going forward.”

“And of course, we hope to achieve prosperity and security for the people of Gibraltar with a new treaty cementing our relationship also with Spain and the European Union.”

That message was echoed by Mr Albares, who spoke of the UK and Spain’s “very strong bilateral relationship”.

“It’s half a million Spaniards living here in the UK and as many Britons living in Spain, we are among the main investors in each other’s countries and a very strong connectivity.”

“So, we want to structure this political relation in benefit of our people.”

“United Kingdom is an excellent ally in NATO. In very challenging and complicated times for Europe, we are together behind Ukraine to make sure that Ukraine will be a free, independent and sovereign country in peace as soon as possible.”

“We believe in multilateralism. We believe that it's better to work together with a progressive view of international relations and to foster peace, whether it's in Ukraine or in the Middle East, all of that we will discuss today.”

“We are very happy to see that United Kingdom wants to reset the relationship with European Union.”

“Having the largest Britain community in any European country, we think that it's in the benefits of everybody that we make the United Kingdom get as close as possible to the European Union.”

“And of course, we will discuss today the future agreement on Gibraltar to make sure that we create this common prosperity between Gibraltar and all those 300,000 Andalusian people that are connected every day in their normal life to the whole region.”

Mr Albares thanked Mr Lammy for hosting the meeting, adding: “Looking forward to this discussion and looking forward to a very strong relationship with the United Kingdom and your government.”

Negotiators have from the outset avoided setting a deadline for the talks to conclude and, despite the upbeat public statements, several sources cooled expectation of a breakthrough in Brussels on Thursday, without ruling it out altogether.

There is some urgency around the negotiation because the prospect of changes at the European Commission – Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s chief negotiator, could be departing in coming weeks – and the forthcoming entry into force of a new EU system to automate border controls as from November looms over the talks.

There are fears that without a deal in place, the changes at the border could lead to lengthy delays in both directions, given Gibraltar has said it will reciprocate any new checks on the Spanish side.

Prior to his meeting with Mr Albares on Monday, Mr Lammy had met in London with the Chief Minister to discuss the treaty negotiation.

Mr Lammy expressed commitment at the time to concluding a treaty but only if Gibraltar was content with its content, adding the UK would support Gibraltar “in all eventualities”.

The UK has also in recent days reaffirmed its commitment to the sovereignty double-lock, something that Mr Lammy is expected underline again on Thursday in Brussels.

After Monday's meeting, both foreign ministers took to social media to underline their earlier messages.

Mr Lammy said in a post on X that the meeting had “covered the full spectrum of our vital partnership”.

“We also looked ahead to meeting in Brussels later this week to seek to progress a deal on Gibraltar alongside @FabianPicardo and @MarosSefcovic”.

Mr Albares posted a video of the meeting with Mr Lammy, adding: “We agreed to strengthen and structure our bilateral relations, also as allies in the @NATO.”

“We discussed the agreement regarding Gibraltar, support for Ukraine and peace efforts in Gaza.”