Gibraltar deal risks becoming Northern Ireland Protocol 2.0, warns Committee

• Correspondence to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Americas, Caribbean and the Overseas Territories), dated 8 May 2024
• European Scrutiny Committee

In his letter to Foreign Minister David Rutley, European Scrutiny Committee Chair Sir William Cash warned that the proposed deal as outlined by Government ministers in an evidence session on 30 April amounts to a “serious diminution of UK sovereignty”.

Among major concerns for the Committee is how UK nationals and Gibraltarians will be handled if Schengen controls were introduced at Gibraltar’s airport rather than the border – a move the Committee says would render ‘Gibraltar’s frontier British in all but name.” It labelled the practical implications of people being checked to enter their own territory as “seismic”. With the EU due to introduce a new Entry/Exit regime in October, people returning to Gibraltar or Brits travelling there for work, could be forced to undergo biometric registration. The Committee is midway through an inquiry into how the new system will affect ports in the UK, during which witnesses revealed that its introduction would cause significant delays. Such an outcome in Gibraltar would be “completely unacceptable”, the Committee said.

Ministers have also failed to answer important questions on the impact of the introduction of Schengen checks on ordinary citizens entering their own territory. It remains “unclear whether any time spent in Gibraltar by UK nationals would count towards the 90 days in 180 days permitted for non-EU nationals in the Schengen Area”, the letter said.

With the airport and the broader Gibraltar peninsula doubling up as a strategic UK military base, the Committee raised concerns over the powers EU border guards could theoretically have to block UK and NATO military personnel from entering the territory. The letter demanded that any change in status of the airport “no matter how small or innocuous, must be ruled out”.

Other concerns raised were military and security concerns over the border operating model at the airport and potential oversight by the European Court of Justice for border and trade matters.

The Committee has called on the Government to clearly set out its negotiating red lines during a proposed pause so that the views of all stakeholders can be sought.

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