Spanish tourism, finance and agriculture could be badly damaged if the EU fails to broker a deal with the UK over Brexit, the nation’s regional officials have warned.
The EU’s European Committee of the Regions has received warnings from eight of Spain’s autonomous communities, who have claimed a no-deal scenario could cause economic chaos.
Andalusia has revealed 58.7 per cent of Spanish workers in Gibraltar will be affected by Brexit, adding that 1.2 per cent of the region’s GDP comes from British tourism alone, says Sunday Express.
The Balearic Islands warned it would feel the loss from the UK being given a bad deal, saying their entire economy could be impacted – with the effects on tourism and real estate being of particular concern.
Roughly 25 per cent of the region’s tourists are from the UK, while tourism as a whole makes up 80 percent of their regional GDP.
The Canary Islands ships more food products to the UK than any other nation.
Regional officials have warned “a sudden withdrawal without a free trade agreement of goods and services could ruin” the lucrative enterprise.
The UK is also the largest source of tourism in Murcia, and the region’s second largest export destination.
Many provinces are also deeply concerned over the loss of UK contributions to the EU budget, potentially leaving a hole of €10 billion which would have gone towards community budgets across the bloc.
It comes as pressure mounts on the EU to sign a free-trade agreement with Britain after a report revealed that a “no deal” scenario could cost the bloc more than £500billion.
The shock figure emerged as Brussels looked set to cave in on a key demand to move a financial body out of the City of London and the head of Deutsche Bank was forced to admit a threatened “Brexodus” from the capital had been exaggerated.
The pro-Brexit Economists for Free Trade group forecast that Britain will gain £651 billion from walking away from talks, leaving the EU with a £507 billion bill.