Spain's warning about tougher Gibraltar border controls from 10 November

If Spain and Britain do not reach an agreement on the status of Gibraltar after Brexit by 10 November, stricter passport controls for residents and cross-border workers will start between Spain and the Rock. The new Schengen area Entry-Exit (EES) control system comes into force Europe-wide on that day.

That was the stark warning on Wednesday this week from the Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel Albares. He had been meeting in Madrid with mayors of towns on the Spanish side of the border in the area known as the Campo de Gibraltar and representatives from Junta de Andalucía regional government.

Albares urged London to "make a move". He said, "We have been negotiating the agreement for many years... It is time for the United Kingdom to say yes to an agreement that is balanced and generous and that we put on the table a long time ago."

The Spanish minister, who has held various meetings with his British counterparts in recent years - the last one in September with Labour's David Lammy - made it clear that the 10 November deadline "has nothing to do with the Gibraltar agreement", nor has it been imposed by Spain. Instead, he stressed that the EES automated passport-reading system is new for the entire Schengen area and that it will therefore be applied at all its borders.

Schengen is the borderless travel area between many, mostly EU, countries on the European mainland. Since Brexit, Gibraltarians, like Britons, are non-EU citizens. When the new, automated passport system comes in, Spain says, it will have no option but to stop and scan everyone's passports under the 90-in-180-days-stay rule - even Gibraltarians - unless the hoped-for deal that keeps Gibraltar in the Schengen area as an exception to Brexit is agreed.

Aware of the consequences a sudden, computerised, hard border would have for the residents of the Rock and the thousands of workers who cross the border from Spanish towns to work in Gibraltar, the Rock's chief minister, Fabian Picardo, hit back, arguing in a statement the British proposals "are reasonable and balanced" and, on the contrary, it is up to Spain to decide "whether to insist on positions they know we cannot accept".

Picardo added that Spain not agreeing, "would condemn us all to controls that will make the life of workers and ordinary people harder". He said it was a pity that Socialists in government in all relevant capitals could not come to an agreement but instead fail to deliver a historic treaty that would be an example of progress "in a world racked by conflict".

It is reported that a principal sticking point to a deal is Spain's request to have its border police or similar on Gibraltarian soil, as the draft agreement envisages no more checks between Gibraltar and Spain, meaning the Rock's port and airport effectively become gateways to Spain and the wider Schengen area as well.

Albares added in his comments after the meeting with representatives on the Spanish side of the border - the latest in several which have kept locals up to date on progress - that "Spain is quite willing to do this wide-ranging deal... that is what I have told the [local] mayors and the Junta de Andalucía."

Antonio Sanz, for the Junta de Andalucía, said after the meeting with Albares that national government would need to come up with a plan B if a hard border stayed with Gibraltar and that the plan would need to "strengthen the economic and social situation in the Campo de Gibraltar area".