MAYOR of the last town in southern Spain before Gibraltar, Juan Franco, was due to travel to Brussels today (Monday) to discuss Brexit and how it will affect residents, British and Spanish alike.
La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz province) is home to numerous Spaniards who commute daily to Gibraltar for work, and also British expats, some retired and some who are also employed on the Rock.
Brexit would, in theory, mean a hard border between Spain and the British-owned enclave, potentially adding long passport control queues to the morning trip to the office.
Even with the post-Brexit transition period agreed now until December 31, 2020 – during which the UK will remain in the Customs Union and common market, but will not participate in any decision-making within the EU – the long-term future for the Gibraltar-Spain border still needs to be resolved.
Juan Franco and his highly-versatile councillor Mario Fernández – who is in charge of six departments in La Línea town hall – had six meetings planned for today and another three for tomorrow (Tuesday).
On Wednesday, Franco will meet with István Ujhelyi, the Hungarian MEP on the European Commission for foreign affairs.
“[Ujhelyi] has been in Gibraltar and he knows the problems Brexit could cause,” Franco reveals.
He says he has 'all the papers the town hall has written about Brexit' in his hand luggage, along with a paper from the House of Lords in London about Brexit and Gibraltar, a study by the UCA, reports by Sinn Féin on the Irish border issues, 'and plenty more'.
“We hope to achieve what we're aiming for, which is a specific plan for our town and help in dealing with the problem that most people still think of as being a long way off but which La Línea has been worrying about since the day after the referendum on the UK's leaving the European Union, along with the likelihood of our workers losing spending power and our shops and other businesses seeing trade drop,” Franco says.
“La Línea relies heavily on its relationship with Gibraltar, and right now we're on the knife-edge of a problem of which the main step in resolving it is that of recognising it and acknowledging its importance.
“To this end, my trip to Brussels is a desperate cry for help in order to call for extraordinary measures for an extraordinary situation.”
