Could Gibraltar join the EU’s borderless Schengen area?

As the territory’s chief minister says he is looking at the plan, Jon Stone considers whether it might work

Queues to Spain could become a thing of the past for the Rock (AFP/Getty)

Gibraltar’s chief minister Fabian Picardo has said the territory could join the EU’s borderless Schengen area after Brexit, arguing that it does not “make sense” for the micro-state to be cut off. Here are the factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Can Gibraltar join Schengen even if the UK has left the EU?

Countries outside the EU are welcome in the Schengen area. Switzerland, Iceland, and Norway are all outside the EU, and are all members, with no passport controls between them and neighbouring countries. Despite the popular aversion to the zone in the UK, it is a very normal part of life on the continent.

There would also be no problem with Gibraltar joining while remaining a British Overseas Territory (BOT). While such territories are under UK sovereignty, they maintain their own rules regarding visa requirements and immigration policies.

Gibraltar currently follows the UK’s visa policy on a voluntary basis, but other BOTs do not – and some do not even give British citizens an automatic right to live there. For instance, the Cayman Islands gives British passport holders a maximum visa-free stay of 6 months for tourist purposes.

What would the advantages be?

The main advantage for Gibraltar would be that there would be no passport checks between Gibraltar and Spain. Thousands of people cross the border every day to work and currently have to show their passports – they would not if Gibraltar was in Schengen.

Brexit will make no difference to this. But getting rid of the checks would make something easier for residents at the same time as other things are getting harder because of divergence between the UK and EU.

One thing that is, however, likely to change after Brexit is the upcoming European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), which complicates matters significantly.

From 2021 visitors to the Schengen area from outside the EU will have to apply in advance for a travel authorisation and pay a small fee. If Gibraltar were inside Schengen, this would not apply: it is easy to see how this is an attractive prospect.

ETIAS is not a visa, but it will make crossing borders more complicated. It is modelled on the US ESTA system that many British travellers are already familiar with. It’s possible that the UK could seek an opt-out in negotiations, but these do not currently exist and it would be a big ask with the UK ending free movement and imposing new strict conditions on EU citizens.

What about disadvantages?

If Gibraltar was itself implementing ETIAS, UK travellers would likely have to apply for one to visit Gibraltar. There are already passport checks between the UK and Gibraltar but things would get more difficult.

This would be a trade-off: as Gibraltar is a British overseas territory the number of people visiting Gibraltar from the UK is high, but not as high as the daily movement of workers across its frontier with Spain.

Would there be popular support for the change?

It’s likely that there would be. Gibraltar may be loudly British and not want to be part of Spain, but its relationship with the continent is nuanced.

Despite sometimes being portrayed as a haven of British nationalism, it voted 96 per cent Remain in the EU referendum and is now being taken out against its will. The micro-state’s residents clearly see no conflict between feeling very British and being strongly integrated with the EU.