Spain wants to sign an agreement with the UK on Gibraltar on Wednesday!

Spain wants to sign an agreement with Britain on Gibraltar on Wednesday. Spain has announced that it is ready for an agreement on the Gibraltar peninsula under British sovereignty in a very short time.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, who made a statement about the peninsula, which has not been shared between the two countries since the 18th century, said that he conveyed his desire to sign an agreement on Gibraltar's post-Brexit status as early as Wednesday to the newly appointed British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. The Spanish minister said he had spoken to Cameron by phone on Monday and they agreed to meet in Brussels to discuss Gibraltar's status. In 2020, when Britain left the European Union, the Gibraltar issue was postponed to a later date to be resolved. "Spain wants this agreement to be signed tomorrow," Albares said, adding that Spain had put a "balanced and generous" agreement on the table a few months ago.

The status of Gibraltar, which lies on the southern tip of Spain and has been under British sovereignty since the 18th century, and how to control the border with Spain, has been a subject of debate since the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016. The enclave was excluded from the exit agreement reached between the UK and the EU. Spain, Britain and the European Union agreed on December 31, 2020, hours before Britain's full exit from the bloc, that Gibraltar would remain part of EU agreements such as the Schengen Area and that Spain would oversee the port and airport until a permanent solution was found. The European Commission and Spain sent a proposal to the UK that includes keeping Gibraltar's land border with Spain open until late 2022 and ensuring the free movement of people.

Spain ceded this peninsula at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea to British rule in 1713, but has been trying to reclaim it. In a referendum held in the enclave in 2002, the people of the peninsula firmly rejected Spanish control. The people of Gibraltar, who also opposed Brexit, overwhelmingly voted 'no' to Britain leaving the European Union by 96 percent. The fact that half of the region's population has to cross the border every day to go to their jobs in Spain and the risk of Brexit causing huge financial damage to the people of the region played an important role in this response.