ARCHIVED - Gibraltar authorities plan for no deal on EU treaty with Spain following UK and EU crunch talks

Spain has suggested it should take control of Gibraltar's borders

Within hours of last-round crunch talks between the EU and the UK on the status of Gibraltar and its future control, 19 Gibraltar Government departments and agencies took part in a six-hour exercise on Wednesday to plan for the possibility of no EU treaty.

Two years ago, a free trade agreement was reached between Britain and the European Union, but Gibraltar's future has been the centre of lengthy negotiations since, with little development.

This week's London talks followed fresh demands for control of the Rock from Spain, with Madrid proposing to eradicate border posts between Gibraltar and Spain which would make the British overseas territory effectively part of the EU's Schengen zone that allows for free movement across the continent.

In return, Spain would take control of the territory's borders.

In order to be prepared for the worst case scenario, should talks between the UK and EU break down, the 19 Gibraltar Government departments simulated the No Negotiated Outcome (NNO) with Ministry of Defense and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development officials in the table-top exercise.

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Exercise Director and Civil Contingencies Coordinator, Ivor Lopez, led the briefing to determine what the main issues of being outside the EU entail.

Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia stressed that a no deal scenario remained a very real one until a treaty had been concluded, and added that although close, the different parties were not quite there yet.

As such, he said more meetings are planned in the coming weeks to prepare for any scenario.

"The Government will mitigate against the negative effects of no treaty in those areas where this is possible. There are some areas where it will be impossible to provide mitigation, and in those areas the NNO scenario will simply reflect what it means to be outside the European Union," explained Dr Garcia.

"This will be a different world where our interactions with Spain and with the EU will be more cumbersome, bureaucratic and time-consuming than anything we have known before. The Government remains firmly committed to the negotiation of a treaty but has a duty to prepare for no treaty at the same time," he added.

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