Anger as Gibraltar left out of Brexit transition
A visit to the frontiers of Norway and Sweden shows how technology can provide a smooth crossing
GIBRALTAR will not be covered by the Brexit provisional transition agreement that Theresa May hopes to conclude with EU leaders this week, the Spanish government has warned.
Mrs May hopes to reach an agreement in principle on the 21-month transition period at a European Council meeting but Gibraltar will have to wait months to discover if it is to be covered.
Last year the European Union granted Spain a veto over Gibraltar which the Madrid government reiterated to The Sunday Telegraph last night.
“If the UK wants any agreement between the EU and UK – including the transitional agreement – to apply to Gibraltar after its withdrawal on March 29 2019, it will need the agreement with Spain,” said a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Spanish veto puts a political timebomb underneath the Brexit negotiations, since the Government has repeatedly promised that it will not leave Gibraltar behind as the UK exits the EU.
It comes as the Commons committee scrutinising Brexit is engulfed in a row over a new report that a leading Conservative member claimed is intended to “negate the referendum result” and damage the Government’s negotiating position ahead of the talks.
The report, published today by the Commons Brexit committee, recommends postponing Britain’s exit from the EU if “substantial aspects” of an agreement have not been decided by October, as well as giving Parliament the power to extend the implementation period of a trade deal.
In the “minority report”, the dissenting MPs also set out concerns over continuing uncertainty about British fishermen being able to take advantage of a larger share of fish from UK waters, warning that the issue should not be used as a “point of negotiation”.
Last December Mrs May issued a categorical assurance to MPs that her government was “not going to exclude Gibraltar” from the negotiations for “either the implementation period or the future agreement”.
Whether Mrs May can make good on that promise depends on the outcome of negotiations with Spain in which Madrid is to demand politically painful concessions from Gibraltar that risk eroding British sovereignty, such as joint control of its airport.
The government of Gibraltar said that the transition deal being negotiated in Brussels this weekend “must apply to Gibraltar” and the veto granted to Spain by the EU was illegal. “We will take the matter to court if Spain exercises the so-called veto,” it threatened.
‘It’s not science fiction, it can be done, but it requires a deep level of cooperation on both sides’
ALONG an icy, windswept road in the hills of Scandinavia, the border between Norway and Sweden is almost buried in snow.
Two discreet signs and a small monolith mark the crossing. There are no customs posts, no guards in peaked caps, and no snaking queues of cars.
It looks like the loneliest road in Europe. But somewhere in the pine trees, a carefully hidden CCTV camera watches those who pass through.
If any suspicious activity is spotted, such as potential smugglers or a stray commercial lorry, a mobile unit of border guards is dispatched to intercept the vehicle on either side of the border.
This frozen corner of Scandinavia is among dozens of unmanned crossings in the region which remain open – de- spite Norway not being a member of the EU – and could become part of the blueprint for the UK’s post-Brexit border regime.
When the UK leaves the EU’s single market and the customs union, checks will have to be carried out on the new UK-EU frontier – but experts say technology can significantly cut down on bureaucracy and delays.
On the Norway -Sweden border, customs checks for lorries still take place, but they are carried out 20 miles away in Svinesund, one of the main crossings between Sweden and Norway. Here, a barcode scanner is used to clear trucks in three to five minutes.
The process has to be quick, as 118,000 lorries cross the 1,000 milelong border each month. To speed things up further, there are plans to set up a GPS system which identifies and tracks lorries via the drivers’ mobile phones, potentially eliminating the need for any checks at all.
“It’s not science fiction, it can be done, but it requires a deep level of cooperation on both sides,” said Lars Karlsson, the president of Swedish customs service KGH. Mr Karlsson, a for- mer head of the World Customs Organisation, believes an upgraded version of this technology could allow frictionless trade between the UK and EU after Brexit.
This would involve UK and EU border officials sharing data and pooling resources, with the ability to carry out checks on each other’s behalf. The sys- tem would be almost entirely reliant on technology, with number plate and barcode scanners replacing most manned customs posts.
It won’t be easy. The UK has committed to avoiding a “hard” border with the Republic of Ireland after Brexit with no physical infrastructure, which would presumably rule out cameras – even if they were invisible. Also, Norway is in the single market, and follows EU rules and regulations and is part of the passport-free Schengen zone. This significantly reduces border friction.
Theresa May has already firmly ruled out the UK adopting a Norway-style Brexit, making it an ever greater challenge to avoid customs chaos.
Instead, she hopes to secure a mutual recognition agreement on product standards, though this idea is already facing fierce opposition from Brussels.
Despite this, Mr Larsson is confident that his “smart border” would be a useful jigsaw piece in the gigantic puzzle Britain faces in leaving the EU.
“This border is maybe 85 per cent smart border, so you would need to go further, upgrade the technology and combine that with an advanced customs arrangement with the EU,” he said. “If you managed that then it would be admired as one of the most advanced customs processes in the world.”
He added: “We are always talking about damage control in the context of Brexit, but I think it is helpful if you look at this as an opportunity as well.”
British officials seem to agree. One senior government source told The Sunday Telegraph that it planned to “borrow some aspects” of the Norway-Sweden border and put them at the Channel Tunnel.
However, the source stressed that the Norway-Sweden border was no “magic bullet” as it barely came close to resolving the extremely thorny issue of the Irish border. Whitehall is also interested in Mr Larsson’s proposal for goods to be checked inside a traders’ warehouse, rather than at the border.
This too could go some way to resolving the Irish question. However, on the approach to Svinesund, it becomes clear that this smart border is far from perfect. Though nearly all cars pass through the border freely, The Tele
graph saw a queue of around a dozen lorries waiting to enter a depot on the side of the road. Here, drivers had to leave their trucks and queue up again in a border office, where they handed over their papers or a mobile barcode which is scanned by an official.
However, Swedish officials hope to eventually move the barcode technology onto the roadside, meaning trucks would stop for a matter of seconds, rather than minutes. If the UK followed suit with a similar barcode system, waiting times at Calais and Dover would be dramatically reduced.
And, in the Irish context, Mr Larsson suggested that you could simply move the barcode scanning point away from the border – potentially as far back as Belfast or Dublin – with drivers ordered to present themselves before continuing their journey.
Truck drivers in Svinesund said they were content with the system, but some grumbled about being stuck in queues on busy days.
Lars-Ake Andersson, 67, who crosses the border three times a week to deliver medical supplies, said: “If it’s very busy, then it takes up to 30 minutes. But even then, it’s not a huge problem.”
Asked whether Brexit posed a bureaucratic nightmare to his fellow truck drivers, he shrugged: “I am optimistic and hoping that this could also work in the UK.
“To be honest I am more worried about Donald Trump than I am about Brexit,” he added.