The Cabinet met this morning in order to consider textual and infrastructure matters arising from the new UK-EU Agreement on the future relationship of Gibraltar with the European Union.

The Attorney General reassured the Cabinet that the legal scrub to the treaty was going well and that no issues of concern had materialised so far. The Cabinet also discussed and approved a draft text of the preamble to the treaty.

A number of technical matters were raised in relation to the temporary arrangements which need to be put in place at the border in order to avoid the application of the EU Entry Exit System (EES). It will be recalled as from October 2025, the EES is being rolled out on a phased basis at external crossing points around the European Union. That period of progressive implementation will come to an end on 10 April.

This means that, before that deadline, some of the existing technical infrastructure will need to be removed from the border area and that temporary infrastructure will need to be put in place instead. The reason for the temporary arrangements is to meet the treaty objective of fluid movement of persons while the permanent infrastructure is under construction. The alternative would be the full application of the EES at the border, including the taking of biometrics like facial scans and fingerprints. This will already be the case for every non-EU visitor to the EU as from 10 April. The treaty will exempt residents of Gibraltar from the EES.

A number of technical contacts between Gibraltar and Spanish officials have already taken place to discuss the temporary infrastructure, and those contacts are now ongoing.