Just ten weeks after Gibraltar’s post-Brexit mobility treaty came into force, reports are piling up that Spanish border officers are still routing some Gibraltarians into the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) queues. Under the treaty—effective 15 July 2026—holders of Gibraltar identity cards or civilian registration cards are exempt from the biometric procedure at every external Schengen border. Yet travellers told The Olive Press they were fingerprinted and face-scanned at Málaga and Barcelona airports as well as the ferry ports of Bilbao and Santander. The practical consequences are serious. Once an entry is stored in the EES, the system automatically starts the 90-days-in-180 clock that applies to ordinary third-country nationals. Because there is no Schengen control when Gibraltarians return home through La Línea, the exit is never recorded—leaving a phantom overstay that could trigger fines or future re-entry bans. Deputy Chief-Minister Joseph Garcia has urged anyone affected to email dates and locations so that Madrid and Brussels can delete erroneous records. The problem appears to stem from inconsistent briefings to Spain’s Policía Nacional. Some officers reportedly admitted checking rules on their own phones, while others cancelled a registration on the spot when shown the exemption clause. Industry insiders point out that Spain processes more than 90 million non-EU arrivals a year, and the EES roll-out—fully operational since 10 April—has already generated system glitches in France, Germany and Italy. Spain, however, has kept the biometric checks in full operation at all airports and sea ports, increasing the probability of human error. For businesses, the stakes go beyond holiday inconvenience. Gibraltar’s finance and gaming sectors rely on seamless cross-border movement for staff who shuttle to client meetings in Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon. Erroneous EES hits jeopardise that fluidity and expose companies to compliance headaches when employees appear to have ‘overstayed’ on paper. Mobility managers are therefore advising staff to travel with both passport and Gibraltar ID, insist on the exemption and screenshot any disputed incident for follow-up. The Gibraltar Government, meanwhile, is preparing a dossier for the European Commission, arguing that Spain must issue an urgent instruction bulletin to all frontline officers and add pop-up alerts to EES terminals to flag the exemption automatically.
Source: The Olive Press
