Tuesday, August 24, 2021 - 09:38

There are still imponderables hanging over a final, definitive agreement about the prospect of Frontex, the European police and coastguard agency, taking control over Gibraltar's external borders, which would include the airport and port. And the draft negotiating mandate published by the EU Commission last month threw a spanner in the works, to the extent that the Gibraltar government lost no time in saying that ‘the mandate strays unhelpfully from the Framework Agreement agreed by the UK and Gibraltar with Spain on the 31st December last year.’

Unfortunately, added the Government, the mandate may not form the basis for the negotiations of an agreement on a UK Treaty with the EU.
And two days later, the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab made pellucidly clear the rejection of the EU Mandate, which was welcomed by Gibraltar.

Out of the blue, the director general of Frontex, the Frenchman Fabrice Leggeri, says it would be an honour to assume control of the external borders of Gibraltar 'if Spain, the UK, Gibraltar and the European Commission' so requested it.

3-PAGE ANALYSIS BY JOE GARCIA IN PANORAMA PRINTED EDITION

24-08-21 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR