After Brexit, traveling Britons may be asked to pay £52 for a visa that will be used when visiting continental Europe. The news came after Spain unveiled new demands over the disputed area of Gibraltar.
According to The Guardian, the Spanish government demanded a footnote on Gibraltar's status to be placed in the European Union's (EU) statute book. Spain said the description in the statute book needs to be fixed for clarification.
The Gibraltar issue has since pushed back attempts to exempt British tourists from acquiring permits before they can travel to mainland Europe after Brexit. For some European MPs, Spain is not helping in efforts to reduce the impact of the upcoming British exit.
Petr Ježek, a Czech MEP, said of the matter, "If there is no agreement, and no visa exemption for the UK, the British government may adopt a similar approach - and that would be a disaster."
The European Commission and Britain previously agreed that U.K. tourists won't need to obtain a visa until 2021 regardless of a no deal Brexit scenario. By 2022, Britons will need to pay £7 for visa-free travel to other EU states for a period of three years.
Due to other issues that the European Commission has to resolve before Brexit takes place on 29 March, MPs are worried that British nationals who want to reduce their stay in an EU state for less than 90 days may be required to pay for a Schengen visa after the British exit.
Madrid has been feuding with the U.K. for three years over the statute book's description of Gibraltar. The issue was revived in January after Spain demanded a footnote stating that Gibraltar was a disputed site and should be on a United Nations list of "non-self-governing territories ... subject to decolonization."
On Thursday's meeting about British exemption from EU tour visas, MEPs accused Spain of having a political agenda for its stance on Gibraltar's sovereignty, The Sun reported. Tory MEP Dan Dalton said, "Is the Spanish government really willing to hold its own tourist industry hostage over Gibraltar with this dangerous posturing?"
The visa exemption proposal has yet to be approved but some EU member states have made it clear that they will not sign the deal if Parliament rejects Spain's demand. Without approval, Britain will be included in the list of countries that are not exempted from obtaining EU travel visas.
