Gibraltar : challenges in the post-Brexit era

Abstract

The triangular relationship between Spain, United Kingdom and Gibraltar has been historically complex, fraught with political difficulties and pending legal controversies. What is certain is that a small territory in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and with a strategic position on the Strait of Gibraltar has been home to a Gibraltarian people with very diverse origins and which has acquired its own identity throughout history. The framework of institutional and legal relations between the three parties has undergone a profound shake-up with the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, forcing a reconfiguration of the entire framework of cross-border relations. Paradoxically, Brexit, as well as a crisis, may be an unexpected opportunity to deepen Gibraltar's European status and to rethink traditional starting positions on all sides. It seems the right time for Spain to abandon its traditional positions anchored in Francoism and begin to recognise that all future decisions in the territory must consider the existence of a Gibraltarian people with the right to freely decide their future. The Brexit crisis could be a good occasion also for the UK to reconsider the constitutional framework in its relations with Gibraltar and the persistence of colonial links.