The European Union removed the last major obstacle to sealing an agreement on Brexit after Spain said it had reached a deal on Saturday with Britain over Gibraltar on the eve of an EU summit. British Prime Minister Theresa May will then have the momentous task to sell the deal to her recalcitrant Parliament and a nation still fundamentally split whether the UK should leave the EU on March 29 and under what conditions.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Saturday that Madrid would support the Brexit divorce deal after the UK and the EU agreed to give Spain a say in the future of the disputed British territory of Gibraltar, which lies at the southern tip of the Mediterranean nation.
“Europe and the United Kingdom have accepted the conditions imposed by Spain. Therefore, as a consequence of this, Spain will lift its veto and tomorrow will vote in favor of Brexit,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez said that the deal is “is going to allow us to have direct negotiations with the U.K. regarding Gibraltar.”
The move should allow EU leaders to sign off on the Brexit agreement between Britain and the EU at Sunday morning’s summit.
The tiny territory of Gibraltar — ceded to Britain in 1713 but still claimed by Spain — was the only dispute left hanging before the summit and had turned into an obstinate stumbling block.
On Friday, Spain said it wouldn’t back the Brexit deal unless it gets a cast-iron guarantee of its say over Gibraltar’s future. Sanchez said the agreement reached would give Spain “absolute guarantees to resolve the conflict that has lasted for more than 300 years before Spain and the UK.”
May was on her way to Brussels when the deal came through and hopes to leave EU headquarters on Sunday with a firm agreement.