Европын Холбоо болон Их Британийн хооронд байгуулсан шинэ хэлэлцээрийн хүрээнд Гибралтарыг Испанитай холбосон биет хилийн хашааг албан ёсоор буулгаж, зорчих хөдөлгөөнийг чөлөөлөв.
Их Британи 2020 онд Европын Холбооноос гарсны дараа Гибралтарын статус болон хилийн асуудал удаан хугацаанд шийдэгдээгүй байсан юм. 2025 онд талууд хилийн зорчих хөдөлгөөнийг хөнгөвчлөх гэрээнд гарын үсэг зурснаар энэхүү түүхэн шийдвэр хэрэгжиж эхэллээ. Европын Холбооны худалдааны төлөөлөгч Марош Шефчович дөрвөн жил үргэлжилсэн нарийн төвөгтэй хэлэлцээрийн үр дүнд хилийн хашааг буулгаж байгаа нь онцгой ач холбогдолтой болохыг тэмдэглэв.
Энэхүү хэлэлцээр нь Гибралтарын эдийн засгийн ирээдүйг баталгаажуулж, өдөр бүр ажилдаа явдаг 15,000 орчим испани иргэн болон орон нутгийн оршин суугчдын зорчих хөдөлгөөнийг хялбарчилж байна. Гибралтарын Ерөнхий сайд Фабиан Пикардогийн мэдээлснээр, тус газар нутаг нь Европын Холбооны Шенгений бүсийн чөлөөт зорчих дэглэмд шилжиж байгаа бөгөөд нисэх онгоцны буудал болон боомтуудад Их Британи, Испанийн хилийн албаныхан хамтран хяналт шалгалтыг гүйцэтгэх юм.
Хилийн биет хашааг буулгасан хэдий ч Гибралтарын эрх баригчид аюулгүй байдлыг хангах үүднээс цахим хяналтыг чангатгаж байна. Тус нутаг дэвсгэр даяар нүүр царай таних камерууд болон хяналтын системийг суурилуулж, цагдаа, гааль, эргийн хамгаалалтын албаны нөөцийг нэмэгдүүлжээ. Пикардо энэ өөрчлөлтийг “дижитал цайз” болж буй үйл явц хэмээн тодорхойлсон бөгөөд 1713 оноос хойш Их Британийн мэдэлд байсан Гибралтарын бүрэн эрхийн маргаантай асуудал энэхүү хэлэлцээрт багтаагүй хэвээр үлдэв.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
A physical border has finally been removed between Gibraltar and Spain, making lives easier for the thousands who travel between the two everyday.
On midnight on Wednesday the fence was officially removed, with hundreds of people turning up to celebrate the historic moment between the southern tip of Spain and the British territory.
The move allows a new freedom of movement under a historic European Union-U.K. treaty that came after years of post-Brexit wrangling. The U.K.’s Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty said that the agreement secured Gibraltar’s long-term economic future and interests.
The contested British Overseas Territory of 38,000 people is perched at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, located just miles from Morocco at a point where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea.
When Britain left the EU in 2020, the relationship between Gibraltar and the bloc had been left unresolved.
Previous talks on a deal to ensure people and goods could keep flowing across the border had made halting progress. In 2025, the EU and U.K. announced an agreement on those issues, with the two sides and Gibraltar’s government signing a treaty Tuesday that eases border crossings.
Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade representative, praised the agreement.
“It has taken four years of patient, complex negotiation, but the outcome speaks for itself,” Šefčovič said. “It is a very special feeling to see a fence come down.”
Without a deal, Gibraltar could have a faced a hard land border with full passport checks, posing economic risks for the territory deeply dependent on some 15,000 Spaniards — almost half of Gibraltar’s workforce — who cross the frontier every day for work.
Leisure visits by people crossing both sides of the border would have been affected, too.
“People who are visiting family in Spain, or whose Spanish family is visiting them in Gibraltar. Children who are going to football matches and extracurricular activities, either in Spain or in Gibraltar. They will be able to do that without having to worry about frontier queues,” Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told The Associated Press in an interview.
The deal in effect brings the territory into the EU’s Schengen free travel area. At Gibraltar’s airport and port, entry and exit checks will be conducted by both U.K. and Spanish border officials. The arrangement is similar to what’s in place at Eurostar train stations in London and Paris, where both British and French officials check passports.
In Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, 96% of voters in Gibraltar or the Rock, as the territory is popularly known in English, supported remaining in the EU.
Travelers to Gibraltar from countries outside the Schengen area will have to contend with the EU Entry-Exit System, or EES, that was rolled out in Europe in April and replaced passport stamps with biometric data collected through photographs and digital fingerprints.
Facial recognition cameras
With the border fence gone, Gibraltar officials have set up live facial recognition cameras at entry points and throughout the territory.
Chief Minister Picardo said the territory will have many more CCTV cameras, and that it has increased its police presence as well as resources for customs and Coast Guard agencies.
“The fortress has become a digital fortress now,” Picardo said.
Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain has maintained its sovereignty claim ever since. Relations between the two countries with respect to Gibraltar have had their ups and downs over the centuries. The treaty that removed the border fence does not resolve the territory’s contested status.
