Negotiators from the EU and UK have finally completed the legal text of the post-Brexit Gibraltar treaty, it has emerged.
The binding document will govern Gibraltar’s relationship with the EU after Brexit, the European Commission has confirmed.
The treaty has the full backing of Spain and the Gibraltar government, and is now undergoing legal scrutiny in Brussels and London ahead of the formal procedures required for signature and ratification.
Its completion marks a major milestone nine and a half years after the Brexit referendum, in which Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly (96.7%) to remain in the EU but was taken out alongside the UK in June 2016.
A political agreement on Gibraltar’s future relationship with the EU was first reached on June 11 2025.
It was signed by EU commissioner Maros Sefcovic, Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares, UK foreign secretary David Lammy and Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo.
Since then, negotiators have worked to convert that deal into binding legal text. According to the Commission, the drafting process was completed on December 12, a development first reported by the Gibraltar Chronicle.
Ending the border bottleneck
The treaty’s central aim is to remove the physical border barrier at La Linea, allowing smoother movement of people and goods between Gibraltar and Spain while protecting the Schengen Area, the EU single market and the customs union.
Brussels says the agreement is designed to provide legal certainty, economic stability and shared prosperity across the wider Campo de Gibraltar region.
For now, Spanish authorities will continue to manage the system at the land frontier. Once the agreement is in force, control will shift.
Passport checks and entry procedures will move to Gibraltar’s port and airport, jointly managed by Spain’s Policia Nacional and Gibraltarian authorities. This will mark the end of physical border controls at the land crossing.
What happens now?
While the final text has not yet been published, UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs that the government expects to release it ‘as soon as possible’, adding that Parliament will have multiple opportunities to scrutinise the treaty.
On the EU side, ratification is expected to take place in the European Parliament, although legal experts have warned the treaty may require approval from national parliaments across the EU if competency issues arise.
For the UK, the process will begin in Gibraltar’s Parliament, which will formally request Westminster to ratify the treaty. It will then proceed under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaG), meaning the agreement must sit before Parliament for 21 sitting days. If no objections are raised, ratification follows automatically.
The Gibraltar government described the conclusion of the legal text as ‘positive’, stressing that it will now undergo technical checks, legal review and EU translation.
A spokesperson said the treaty would be made public and subjected to full parliamentary scrutiny in Gibraltar, the UK and the EU as part of the ratification process.
If approved, the agreement would finally bring clarity to Gibraltar’s post-Brexit status and reshape daily life at one of Europe’s most politically sensitive borders.
