BRUSSELS — The EU Council of Ministers Tuesday adopted a decision authorizing the European Commission to open negotiations for an EU-UK agreement in respect of Gibraltar.

The Council green-lighted the opening of talks as well as the negotiating directives. On this basis, the European Commission can now begin formal negotiations with the UK.

The aim of the negotiations is to establish a broad and balanced agreement between the EU and the UK in respect of Gibraltar in view of the particular geographical situation and specificities of Gibraltar, said an EU press release.

Gibraltar was not included in the scope of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement agreed between the EU and UK at the end of 2020.

On Dec. 31, 2020 Spain and the UK reached an understanding on a possible framework for an agreement on Gibraltar. In this document, just hours before the UK left the EU, Madrid and London agreed to keep Gibraltar’s land border open.

On the basis of that understanding, Spain invited the Commission to initiate the negotiations of such an agreement at EU level.

The envisaged agreement between the EU and the UK in respect of Gibraltar should be without prejudice to the issues of sovereignty and jurisdiction, it noted.

The aim of keeping Gibraltar in the EU’s passport-free Schengen area was to avoid a hard border that would have affected almost 15,000 Spanish workers who cross daily from Spain, making up for half of the region’s workforce.

Around 96 percent of voters in Gibraltar voted for the UK to stay in the EU in a 2016 referendum.

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. It is bordered to the north by Spain. The UK left the EU in January 2020. — Agencies