Crowds on both sides of the Gibraltar frontier celebrated overnight into Wednesday 15 July as the newly opened border brought an end to decades of routine checks, in what many described as a historic moment.
Footage shows Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo embracing La Línea mayor Juan José Franco as they crossed the frontier together, while British customs officers left their posts to applause. Residents waved flags, danced in the streets and held banners reading “At last, no more queues”, celebrating the end of long delays that had disrupted the lives of travellers and cross-border workers. The reopening was widely hailed as a new chapter in relations between Gibraltar and neighbouring Spain.
The border fence between Spain and the British territory of 38,000 people was fully removed at midnight under a treaty between the European Union and United Kingdom signed on Tuesday, ending years of post-Brexit wrangling. The deal effectively brings Gibraltar into the Schengen area, with UK and Spanish officials jointly checking passports at its airport and port instead of at the land frontier used daily by 15,000 Spanish workers.
EU trade representative Maros Sefcovic called it a special moment to see a fence come down after four years of negotiation, while Picardo said Gibraltar had become a “digital fortress” with new cameras and police. The crossing, ceded to Britain in 1713, remains a source of sovereignty disputes with Spain.