Fabian Picardo Says Gibraltar Fence Dismantling With Spain Ends Damaging Uncertainty

Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said the imminent dismantling of the territory’s border fence with Spain marks the end of an uncertainty that has been “very damaging” for the local economy and its cross-border workforce.

“On June 11, 2025, an agreement among the European Union (EU), Spain, and the United Kingdom opens Gibraltar to the Schengen area”

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Picardo welcomed the looming entry into provisional application of the EU-UK Agreement in respect of Gibraltar, signed in December 2025 after four years of post-Brexit negotiations, with provisional application due on July 15.

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The Council of the European Union said the deal will remove all physical barriers, checks and controls on people and goods circulating between Spain and Gibraltar, while Schengen entry-exit checks will be carried out at Gibraltar’s airport and port by officers from Spain’s Policía Nacional working alongside Gibraltar border agents.

Picardo also said the rollout will be gradual, given the complexity of the operation, and Gibraltar’s government confirmed that dismantling all physical barriers, including the Verja, will begin before July 15 to ensure compliance with the new treaty.

The new arrangement keeps Gibraltar outside the Schengen area while shifting immigration, policing and justice responsibilities to Gibraltar authorities, and it sets up Schengen-style checks at Gibraltar’s airport and port with Spanish Policía Nacional officers working alongside Gibraltar border agents.

The Brussels Signal described the arrangement as similar to that in place at Eurostar terminals in London and Paris, and it said the deal completes the legal framework of EU-UK relations established by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement of 2020, which excluded Gibraltar from its scope.

Brussels Signal

Europe 1, citing AFP, said the treaty aims to remove physical barriers and controls on people and goods moving between Spain and the enclave, and it reported that the objective was a provisional application by April 10 to coincide with the full implementation of the new entry-exit system at the EU's external borders (EES).

Europe 1 also reported that about 15,000 people, mostly Spaniards, cross the border every day to work in Gibraltar, and it said that by road the border will be fluid with no checks on people crossing it while arrivals by plane at Gibraltar Airport face a double check by Gibraltar and Spanish officials.

El País reported that the fence will start to fall in mid-July and that the agreement between London and the EU is already changing the economic geography of the area, citing income per capita figures of 93,700 euros on this side of the Verja and ten unemployed in a population that nears 40,000.

“The agreement signed in February 2026 between the EU and the United Kingdom removes the land border between Gibraltar and Spain, incorporating this 6”

Conflits

El País also said the pact sealed in Brussels, described as “a behemoth of more than 1,000 pages,” will end the Verja in mid-July, with demolition beginning in June according to Spanish Foreign Ministry sources.

In parallel, Brussels Signal said the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) endorsed the texts on April 1, with all 27 member states backing the agreement without objections, and it reported that the original target date of April 10 was pushed back by three months for legal-linguistic reviews and translation into all official EU languages.

Brussels Signal added that Picardo described the revised timetable as “a very positive development” that provides “certainty and additional time to prepare,” while also noting that around half of Gibraltar’s population crosses the border each day and that some 15,000 frontier workers depend on the crossing.