The Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabián Picardo, says the new agreements, which will be implemented provisionally and whose approval by the United Kingdom and the European Parliament is still pending, represent “a big change” for the territory.

“One of the key things that has defined the last eight generations of Gibraltarians is the restrictions at the border,” he told the BBC at Gibraltarian government headquarters.

Picardo describes the agreement as introducing “a total and absolute fluidity of people and goods” between Gibraltar, on the one hand, and Spain and the EU, on the other.

The most obvious economic benefit for Gibraltar, says Picardo, will be an increase in arrivals.

“Businesses will now be able to see, in Gibraltar, an increase in footfall that will not be held back by a possible queue at the entrance or a queue at the border on the exit.”

The fact that Spain opposes British sovereignty over Gibraltar is an issue that occasionally explodes into the political arena. In the most notorious episode of bilateral tensions in recent times, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco introduced a blockade of the Rock in 1969, which was not lifted until 1982, long after his death.

The prime minister presents the new agreement as the opposite of the blockade: a logical and mutually beneficial opening of a border.

“This will be huge for human relations, it will be huge for companies, it will be huge for border workers, it will be a new dawn” for Gibraltar’s relationship with Spain and the EU, says Picardo.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, José Manuel Albares, has expressed it from a similar perspective, speaking of “a new era” for the Rock.

However, the agreement also means that goods sold in Gibraltar must comply with EU regulations, something that has not been the case until now.