La Linea/Gibraltar frontier -Spain's last frontier for EU Entry/Exit System

The Spanish Ministry of the Interior has not wanted to give a concrete date for the introduction of the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System at the Gibraltar frontier. 

In answer to GBC questions, it's confirmed the frontier between Gibraltar and La Linea will be the last frontier where the EES will be rolled out, pending the EU/UK treaty. 

The Newsroom's questions were prompted by a report in the Spanish press that Spain plans to activate the Entry/Exit System at the Gibraltar frontier on the 30th of March.

The EU's Entry/Exit system started to be introduced on the 12th of October and has to be completed by the 10th of April.

And, it is this date that everyone has been working towards.

On Monday Europa Sur published a new date - the 30th of March- but the Ministry of the Interior has not confirmed it in answer to GBC questions.

The system will introduce digital passport checks and biometric registration for third-country nationals entering the Schengen area, replacing traditional passport stamping.

Gibraltar residents will be exempt with the Spanish authorities having said transitional arrangements remain in place until treaty signature.

Spain first introduced the system, in which it's invested 83 million euros, in October at the Adolfo Suárez Airport in Barajas Madrid.  

The Ministry of the Interior has confirmed to GBC that the infrastructure for the Entry Exit system is in place at its frontier with Gibraltar but said details on how it will operate are pending the signing of the Treaty.

We do not know how far we are from that or whether the legal scrub of the treaty text has been concluded.

When this is done the text will be translated into the 24 languages of the European Union ahead of the Treaty being signed.

There have been a number of briefings over the past few days and things appear to be moving fast-  The Treaty will be published after it's signed  so that it can be ratified by both the UK and EU Parliaments.

So far its contents have been preserved- but once it's in the hands of all the EU Member States, protecting the confidentiality becomes harder and we may know more- even before its publication.