The European Parliament and the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU have not yet reached agreement on Wednesday morning, 27 February, on the visa-free regime for short stays in the EU, proposed to British citizens by the Commission in November.
While the European Parliament rapporteur on this issue, Claude Moraes (S&D, UK), was counting on a fourth trilogue to make progress on the Gibraltar issue and its controversial footnote addition to the Council's mandate, which blocks discussions, he could not convince the Council to accept a more neutral wording on this disputed territory, a Council source said. A new proposal for wording has thus been submitted to the Romanian Presidency.
The MP had explained the day before to his colleagues in the LIBE Committee that he had asked the Presidency to survey Member States on a more neutral wording referring to the disputes between Spain and the United Kingdom over the demarcation of the Gibraltar border (see EUROPE 12202), but this wording was rejected by Member States. According to MP Petr Ježek (ALDE, Czech Republic), another compromise was therefore submitted on Wednesday morning, based on the existing legislation on Gibraltar, explained the Czech on his Twitter account. This new wording will again be transmitted to the Member States. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)