EU member states have backed the text of a new agreement with the UK covering Gibraltar, with provisional application expected to start on 15 July 2026.
The endorsement was given by the Committee of Permanent Representatives, a body made up of EU ambassadors, which agreed the draft agreement and related decisions on signature and provisional application, the Council of the EU announced on Wednesday.
The texts will be formally adopted once legal and linguistic checks by the Council’s lawyer-linguists are completed.
The deal would add to the legal framework governing EU-UK relations set out in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which was signed in 2020 and has applied since 2021, the Council said.
Gibraltar is not covered by that earlier agreement, it added.
What the Gibraltar agreement covers
The agreement would remove physical barriers for people and goods moving between Spain and Gibraltar while safeguarding the Schengen area — the EU’s passport-free travel zone — as well as the EU Single Market and Customs Union, the Council said.
Christina Rafti, Cyprus’s permanent representative to the EU, said the agreement would be “beneficial for the people in the region and for the EU as a whole.”
