Treaty remains elusive despite ‘important breakthroughs’ in Brussels talks

There was no final agreement in the negotiation for a UK/EU treaty on Gibraltar’s post-Brexit relationship with the bloc on Thursday, despite negotiators pointing to “important breakthroughs” after seven hours of intense high-level talks.

There had been mounting expectation that a deal might be announced as European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares and Chief Minister Fabian Picardo gathered in Brussels for the second time in five weeks.

But with the EU’s June election looming, the negotiating parties emerged from the talks with a message that sought to highlight positive progress but left no doubt there was still much to be agreed.

“Today’s discussions took place in a constructive atmosphere, with important breakthroughs and additional areas of agreement,” the Commission, the UK, Spain and Gibraltar said in a joint statement.

“All sides are reassured that the agreement is getting closer and will work closely and rapidly on outstanding areas towards an overall EU-UK agreement.”

“The meeting reaffirmed their shared commitment to concluding an EU-UK Agreement to bring confidence, legal certainty and stability to the lives and livelihoods of the people of the whole region, by protecting and improving economy and trade, mobility, environment and social wellbeing, while safeguarding all parties’ legal positions.”

“They all agreed to remain in close and constant contact.”

The negotiators commenced talks at 2pm and initially expected to brief reporters at 6pm. In the event, it was almost 9pm when they finally emerged.

At a short press conference in the Commission building, Mr Šefčovič pointed to the complexity of combining the “political will” to reach agreement with “technical capacities and technical solutions” to deliver an ambitious and highly complex goal.

He said there had been progress across the board and that negotiators “really put all the issues on the table”.

“We've been going through them one by one, and I cannot say that we didn't achieve any progress on any one of them,” he said.

“So we are progressing on all the issues.”

“But of course, this is very political, but I also have to say extremely technical discussions in some areas.”

“And therefore we have to combine, I would say, the political will to find an agreement to look for the best possible compromises, with the technical capacities and technical solutions which we need to develop.”

“We need to work at both political level to provide the steer, to show the political leadership on these issues, and have very strong support by our technical teams that what we agreed will be then, of course, implementable and be technically feasible.”

He said the aim was to provide a framework that will deliver “legal certainty and stability” to the people of Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar.

He said there had been progress on areas that had not been discussed at the previous high-level meeting on April 12, adding: “We are really progressing and we want to focus on the positive outcomes and on the positive discussions.”

But asked if an agreement was possible before the June EU election, Mr Šefčovič would not be drawn on a timeline, other than to say negotiators would remain "in permenent contact", both at political and technical level, and “continue our work already tomorrow and in the course of the next week”.

“We want to achieve rapid progress and, if possible, the conclusion of the negotiations and the outstanding agreement, which is in the interest of all of us as soon as possible,” he told reporters.

"But we also know that the important thing is to have a good agreement, therefore we want to work on it," Mr Šefčovič added.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Albares said he had expressed a "resolute commitment" to reach an agreement on Gibraltar's post-Brexit relations with the bloc.

"It’s clear that we have all expressed our resolute commitment to the final goal, which is to achieve this agreement for an area of shared prosperity with Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar, and to create a new relationship based on trust and prosperity,” he said.

In common with the other negotiating parties, Mr Albares would not be drawn on any details of the negotiation.

But speaking outside the Berlaymont building, he echoed the words of the Commission vice president who was speaking at the same time inside.

“In some aspects, we still need a greater convergence of technical positions," he said, adding it is "simply about bringing positions closer on the final points”.

There were no statements to the press from the UK or Gibraltar delegations, with the Chief Minister and his team rushing to the airport to make their flight.

The Gibraltar delegation included Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia, who was in Washington earlier this week too for briefings at the US Congress on Gibraltar’s strategic role, and Attorney General Michael Llamas, as well as Daniel D’Amato, the head of Gibraltar House in Brussels.