Spain threatens Brexit deal over Gibraltar

May heads to Brussels for 11th-hour talks but EU diplomats insist deal to be approved today

Spain’s demand for a veto on the future of Gibraltar loomed yesterday as the final stumbling block standing in the way of a smooth Brexit deal, as Theresa May headed to Brussels for 11thhour talks.

The British premier plans to meet EU leaders JeanClaude Juncker and Donald Tusk, even though European diplomats insist the agreement is finished and ready for EU leaders to approve today.

But Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has warned that he will boycott today’s summit if London and Brussels do not confirm his country’s veto over any future accord on ties with Gibraltar.

If there is no final agreement on both Britain’s withdrawal treaty and a political declaration on post-Brexit EUUK ties, Tusk may be forced to cancel the summit and plunge the process back into doubt.

This would undermine May’s bid to sell her draft Brexit deal to a hostile Westminster parliament and increase the risk of a ‘no-deal Brexit’ most observers warn would be an economic calamity.

Nothing in the painful 17-month withdrawal process has gone smoothly, and on Friday, Sanchez insisted that Madrid holds a veto over the fate of Gibraltar in any post-Brexit negotiation of new EU-UK ties.

Visiting Cuba, Sanchez said Spain must negotiate directly with London on Gibraltar and approve any changes to its relationship to the European Union in a future agreement between Britain and Brussels.

“If there’s no agreement, it’s very clear what will happen, there very probably won’t be a European Council,” he declared, referring to today’s summit of 27 EU leaders ahead of their encounter with May.

Gibraltar, a rocky outcrop home to a port and around 30,000 people, is a British territory claimed by Spain and a bone of contention as London negotiates a new relationship with Brussels after Brexit on March 29.

In London, a Downing Street source insisted: “We have negotiated on behalf of the whole of the UK family. That includes Gibraltar and the overseas territories.”

In legal terms, Spain’s disapproval would not halt the divorce settlement, but it would embarrass EU leaders keen to show that the 27 are united, and might delay today’s largely symbolic summit.

And, as Madrid has noted, any final relationship negotiated between London and Brussels after Brexit day on March 29 would have to be approved by all remaining member states — giving Spain a de facto veto further down the line.

May was expected to see EU Commission president Juncker, head of the bloc’s executive, and EU Council president Tusk, whose institution represents the member states.