DETAILED talks over how to maintain the rights and freedoms of cross-border workers living in Spain and with jobs in Gibraltar have reached a conclusion and a new system ready to be put into place.
About 15,000 European Union citizens work in the British enclave on the far tip of the Iberian peninsula, of whom around two-thirds are Spaniards, and the vast majority of the latter live in the province of Cádiz and commute daily.
But as they are, technically, commuting into the UK, once the Brexit transition period ends as the New Year of 2021 begins, many are still worried or facing uncertainty.
The Withdrawal Agreement says these cross-border employees will retain all their workers' rights that they had when both countries were members of the EU, but how to ensure this functions in practice needed a great deal of fine-tuning.
This week, eight towns and villages in the Cádiz-province district known as the Campo de Gibraltar, along with the regional government or Junta of Andalucía, representatives from Spain's national government and its foreign affairs ministry, and UK-based and Gibraltarian authorities sat around a metaphorical table.
Now, anyone who commutes between the 'Rock' and Spain will need to check whether they are registered on a website set up by the Gibraltarian authorities, and if they wish, they can ask for a physical letter from these to certify their status.
This letter will only be issued upon request, not automatically.
Any worker who is not on the register, but feels they should be, can contact the Rock's administration detailing their case, and may be eligible for entry.
Gibraltar's First Minister Fabián Picardo has said he will explain the full details of the process once the website goes live.
Spain's foreign affairs ministry says the move 'responds to one of the main concerns' that the Brexit process had created for those living close to the UK-Spain border on either side, as Spaniards, and other nationalities legally resident in the province of Cádiz – including Brits – who have to step into international territory every day to get to and from work were worried they would face an excessively-long commute involving queuing at passport control.
The cross-border register will only cover those with a home on one side of the frontier and a job on the other – in the vast majority of cases, the former is in Spain and the latter is on the Rock – meaning other large swathes of the community, such as people with family and friends on the 'other side of the fence' or who regularly hop between them for shopping, leisure and hobbies will not be covered by any letter issued by authorities.
This said, there is no need to get a visa just to meet a mate for an after-work drink: Crossing the border will involve showing a passport or, in the case of non-Brits, either a passport or a national ID card from Spain or their home EU country, but will not require any other type of bureaucracy.
The local, national, regional and international figureheads who devised the registration scheme say they will meet regularly before and after the end of the Brexit transition to discuss any issues that crop up, or 'any matter that arises through the coordination with the European Commission as guardian of the EU treaties and their correct application'.
