Yahoo Finance Explained: Why Spain can't veto the Brexit deal
“If there are no changes, we will veto Brexit,” Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez vowed after a phone call with Theresa May over Gibraltar on Thursday night.
If Sanchez were to “veto Brexit”, that would go down well in Gibraltar where 96% of people voted to remain in the EU.
But, of course, he actually meant he would veto the Brexit deal that will be put before him and 26 other European heads of government at a summit in Brussels on Sunday.
Spain’s issue with the deal is that it doesn’t include a veto for them on the future of Gibraltar.
The negotiating guidelines given by European leaders to its chief negotiator Michel Barnier last April state that: “After the United Kingdom leaves the Union, no agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom may apply to the territory of Gibraltar without the agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom.”
MORE: Spain threatens to veto Brexit deal over Gibraltar
Spanish objections were sparked when there was no mention of this in the withdrawal agreement published last week.
First, they proposed an addition to the deal, which was not accepted by the UK. Now, they’re threatening to bring down the whole thing.
Under EU rules, the deal only needs the backing a majority of countries rather than unanimity.
Spain’s own foreign minister, Josep Borrell, admitted as much in an interview earlier this week.
He said Spain will “not be able to say OK” to the deal without changes, but added: “They could go over [us] because consensus is not unanimity.”
MORE: Spanish foreign minister fears UK will ‘split apart’ over Brexit
However, the votes are extremely rare at the European Council, which prefers to take decisions by consensus.
The last time a vote took place was in 2014. Then prime minister David Cameron forced a vote over the nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker as commission president but lost by 26 votes to 2.
It’s more likely that a fudge will be found in behind closed doors deal making before Sunday, allowing leaders to rubber stamp the deal at a highly choreographed summit.
As Spain’s Europe minister, Marco Aguiriano, told the BBC: “As everybody knows in European affairs, you can find solutions at the last minute in different forms.”
