EU leans towards Spain with Gibraltar future unclear

Gibraltar’s future is up in the air after the European Union backed Spain’s right to exclude the overseas territory from any single market access when Britain leaves the bloc.

According to the negotiating guidelines released by the EU on Friday, if Spain is not content with the status of Gibraltar, it will retain the right to exclude it from the free trade system.

Britain and Spain have engaged in centuries of squabbling over the territorial status of 'the rock', and the EU’s stance is likely to intensify those arguments. Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly to remain part of the EU in last June’s referendum, but a majority of Britons voted to leave.

Spain has long-held ambitions to reclaim Gibraltar after its cessation from the country in 1713 as part of the Treaty of Utrecht, and Brexit appears to be an ideal opportunity for Mariano Rajoy’s government to bring the issue back to the table.

Britain and Spain have engaged in decades of squabbling over the territorial status of "the rock"

"After the United Kingdom leaves the Union, no agreement between the EU and the UK may apply to the territory of Gibraltar without the agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the UK," the guidelines released on Friday said.

British foreign secretary Boris Johnson has said that the government will maintain a firm stance on its control over Gibraltar, referring to the "implacable, marmoreal and rock-like resistance" to any attempt from Spain to lay claim to the area.

Since last year’s referendum, Spanish politicians have made several comments which suggest that the government will take steps towards keeping Gibraltar within the EU. In the aftermath of the vote, acting foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo angered Britain by saying that the region’s return to Spanish control was “much closer” than before the poll.