04 April 2018

Reuters: Spain hopes for Brexit deal on Gibraltar before October: foreign minister

Spain hopes to sign off on a bilateral agreement with Britain over Gibraltar before October so as not to hinder a Brexit transition deal, Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis told Reuters.

[...]Talks between London and Madrid have been underway since January, Dastis said, with teams of Spanish and British civil servants meeting three or four times so far in encounters arranged in both countries.

“Things are progressing well so therefore we’d like to be optimistic,” Dastis said in an interview.

Both the EU and Britain have said they hope to get the exit deal agreed by October.

Dastis said he hoped the bilateral accord on Gibraltar could be signed off before October and form a part of that final deal, which is also expected to comprise a framework for future trade relations between the EU and the United Kingdom.

“Our aspiration is that the bilateral agreement (with Spain) can be signed off the same time as the general agreement,” he said.

The EU has said the transition deal can only be finalised if Britain honors its commitments on Gibraltar and on the Irish border, another thorny diplomatic issue for London.

Talks are centering around possible joint use of Gibraltar airport and a more comprehensive sharing of fiscal data between Britain and Spain for Gibraltar residents to prevent tax avoidance, Dastis said. [...]

Full article on Reuters

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