Gibraltar is set to join Europe's borderless Schengen Area as part of an eleventh-hour deal with Spain over the future of the small British territory. Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said negotiators had reached an "agreement in principle" with the United Kingdom that would see "EU policies and programs" remain in force in the territory, on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula. It comes hours before Gibraltar was set to leave the EU's single market at midnight on Friday, in keeping with the United Kingdom, as the post-Brexit transition period ended. But Thursday's agreement will see it effectively join the Schengen zone, meaning that a border fence separating it from the neighboring Spanish town of La Línea de la Concepción will be demolished. Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo was due to make a televised address on Thursday afternoon. The Brexit deal announced on Christmas Eve between the UK and EU did not cover Gibraltar. Instead, the fate of the territory was the topic of months of parallel negotiations that focused on preserving free movement across the shared border with Spain while steering clear of the centuries-old sovereignty dispute between London and Madrid. — Euronews
