The European Union and the United Kingdom signed a treaty in Brussels on Tuesday that will remove physical border checks for thousands of people who commute daily between southern Spain and the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.

The agreement allows Gibraltar residents to cross into Spain using residence cards without passport stamps, and Spanish citizens to enter Gibraltar with a government ID card. Effectively, it brings Gibraltar into the EU's Schengen free-travel zone.

At Gibraltar's airport and port, entry and exit checks will be conducted jointly by British and Spanish border officials, similar to the system at Eurostar stations in London and Paris.

Travelers from non-Schengen countries, including the UK, will face the EU's new Entry/Exit System, which uses biometric data instead of passport stamps.

Previously, each person had to undergo two separate border checks—one by Gibraltarian and one by Spanish authorities—causing long queues that severely impacted the 15,000 daily cross-border workers, more than half of Gibraltar's workforce.

The British government said the treaty provides "fluidity for people and goods crossing the Gibraltar-Spain border to support economic growth and jobs in the region."

Gibraltar, a strategically located enclave on Spain's southern tip, has been under British control since the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. In the 2016 Brexit referendum, 96% of Gibraltar voters supported remaining in the EU. After Brexit in 2020, Gibraltar's status was left unresolved.

The treaty, signed after more than three and a half years of negotiations, gives Gibraltar EU privileges without EU membership. No other British overseas territory has a similar deal due to Gibraltar's unique land border with an EU member state.

Source: www.aljazeera.com