{"id":139102,"date":"2026-07-14T17:11:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gibraltar-ushers-in-a-new-era-as-british-territorys-border-fence-with-spain-is-removed\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T17:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:14:17","slug":"gibraltar-ushers-in-a-new-era-as-british-territorys-border-fence-with-spain-is-removed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gibraltar-ushers-in-a-new-era-as-british-territorys-border-fence-with-spain-is-removed\/","title":{"rendered":"Gibraltar ushers in a new era as British territory’s border fence with Spain is removed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Against
Against the backdrop of the Rock of Gibraltar, workers dismantle a Spanish border checkpoint that separated the disputed British overseas territory from Spain in La L\u00ednea de la Concepci\u00f3n, Spain, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Marcos Moreno)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Marcos Moreno)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MADRID (AP) \u2014 Thousands of people who travel every day between the southern tip of Spain<\/a> and the British territory of Gibraltar<\/a> will no longer have to cross a physical border, beginning on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The official opening at midnight on Tuesday \u2014 after a border fence was fully removed \u2014 allows a new freedom of movement under a historic treaty between the European Union and the United Kingdom. It came after years of post-Brexit wrangling.<\/p>\n

The contested British Overseas Territory of 38,000 people is perched at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, in a strategic location mere miles from Morocco where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n

Soon after midnight, crowds crossed freely between Spain\u2019s La L\u00ednea de Concepci\u00f3n and Gibraltar in both directions. Many wore Spanish soccer jerseys after Spain\u2019s victory against France in the World Cup semifinal<\/a> on Tuesday, adding to the celebratory mood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you feel here is the brotherhood between the two people,\u201d Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told Spanish broadcaster RTVE.<\/p>\n

A deal that took years to realize<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Britain left the EU in 2020, the relationship between Gibraltar and the bloc had been left unresolved.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> on those issues, with the two sides and Gibraltar\u2019s government signing a treaty Tuesday that eases border crossings.<\/p>\n

The U.K.\u2019s Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty said Tuesday that the agreement secured Gibraltar\u2019s long-term economic future and interests.<\/p>\n

Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, the EU\u2019s trade representative, praised the agreement, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has taken four years of patient, complex negotiation, but the outcome speaks for itself,\u201d \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said. \u201cIt is a very special feeling to see a fence come down.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 almost half of Gibraltar\u2019s workforce \u2014 who cross the frontier every day for work.<\/p>\n

Leisure visits by people crossing both sides of the border would have been affected, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople 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,\u201d Picardo told The Associated Press in an interview.<\/p>\n

The deal in effect brings the territory into the EU\u2019s Schengen free travel area. At Gibraltar\u2019s airport and port, entry and exit checks will be conducted by both U.K. and Spanish border officials. The arrangement is similar to what\u2019s in place at Eurostar train stations in London and Paris, where both British and French officials check passports.<\/p>\n

Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain has maintained its sovereignty claim ever since. Relations between the two countries on the issue of Gibraltar have had their ups and downs over the centuries. The treaty that removed the border fence does not resolve the territory\u2019s contested status.<\/p>\n

In Britain\u2019s 2016 Brexit referendum<\/a>, 96% of voters in the Rock, as the territory is popularly known in English, supported remaining in the EU.<\/p>\n

Travelers to Gibraltar from countries outside the Schengen area \u2014 including the U.K. \u2014 will have to contend with the EU Entry-Exit System, or EES, which was rolled out in Europe in April<\/a> and replaced passport stamps with biometric data collected through photographs and digital fingerprints.<\/p>\n

Facial recognition cameras at the Rock<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the border fence gone, Gibraltar officials have set up live facial recognition cameras at entry points and throughout the territory.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fortress has become a digital fortress now,\u201d Picardo said.<\/p>\n

\"Against
Against the backdrop of the Rock of Gibraltar, workers dismantle a Spanish border checkpoint that separated the disputed British overseas territory from Spain in La L\u00ednea de la Concepci\u00f3n, Spain, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Marcos Moreno)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Marcos Moreno)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"People
People queue to cross the border between Spain and Gibraltar, in La Linea de la Concepcion, Spain, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Marcos Moreno)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Marcos Moreno)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A Spanish Guardia Civil officer holds a sign during the dismantling of a border checkpoint that separated Spain from the disputed British overseas territory of Gibraltar in La L\u00ednea de la Concepci\u00f3n, Spain, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Marcos Moreno)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Marcos Moreno)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"People
People queue to cross the border between Spain and Gibraltar, in La Linea de la Concepcion, Spain, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Marcos Moreno)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Marcos Moreno)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Against the backdrop of the Rock of Gibraltar, workers dismantle a Spanish border checkpoint that separated the disputed British overseas territory from Spain in La L\u00ednea de la Concepci\u00f3n, Spain, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo\/Marcos Moreno)(AP Photo\/Marcos Moreno) MADRID (AP) \u2014 Thousands of people who travel every day between the southern tip of Spain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-139102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139102"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139111,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139102\/revisions\/139111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139102"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=139102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}