In the heart of Madrid, where cobblestone streets meet centuries of history, the British Embassy stands as a symbol of diplomacy and cooperation. At its helm is Sir Alex Ellis, the new British Ambassador to Spain since September 2024, whose career has spanned continents, crises, and cultural shifts.
As the United Kingdom navigates its post-Brexit relationship with Europe, Spain is the number one location for British ex-pats and tourists, which is what makes it such a special job.
In this exclusive interview, at the British Consulate in Santa Cruz e Tenerife, we discussed the evolving dynamics between Britain and Spain, the importance of getting a TIE residency card, and why diplomacy in the 21st century is as much about people as it is about policy.
ED: So, I’m delighted to be sitting down with Sir Alex Ellis the brand-new, as of September, British Ambassador for Spain. Mr. Ellis, welcome to Tenerife. Is it your first visit?
Sir Alex: Thank you so much, Chris, yes, it is my first visit to the Canaries, I'm completely fascinated by the place. I just arrived this morning and got soaking wet at Tenerife's North airport, and were almost diverted to the south due to the wind, but now we’re in resort, and what a fascinating place. I mean it is a very interesting strategically placed area for Europe, Africa and then the connections with America. I'm a big fan of history, in fact, I used to be a history teacher, so finding out about the three different naval battles between the Spanish and the British Navy around the islands, make it totally fascinating.
ED: You're obviously based in mainland Spain now, and looking back over your history you've been based in various different places, including Portugal, Brazil, and India, how do you get this job? Do you apply for it or is it betrothed upon you?
Sir Alex: That would be lovely. No, you apply for it, and it's a very popular job. You can imagine a lot of people would like to be the ambassador for Spain. It's a really lovely country to live in, a very interesting country to work with. You apply, you get shortlisted or not, you get interviewed and then you either get the job or you don't. And so yes, I went through a sort of competition.
ED: Is Spain seen as a Premier League club or a championship club in ambassadorial terms?
Sir Alex: Obviously from an expat point of view, then yes, it's definitely the Premier League. Spain is one of the biggest expat communities in the world, and it's easily the most visited country from the UK in the world. So, our consulate is the biggest consulate operation we have in the world as well. From a trade and economic point of view, it is a top 10 country. I think we're each other's seventh biggest, it's our seventh biggest trading partner. Spain would be probably in the first top five or six investors in the UK. So, there's a lot of materiality to it. And then it has issues which come, first of all, from Brexit, which actually I worked on with the previous ambassador when we were in London from 2016 to 2019.
ED: On the exit from Europe, correct?
Sir Alex: Yes, that's right, the exit from Europe. But now you've got a new set of issues with what's going on in the world and what's going on between Russia, Ukraine, United States, so that's given a kind of new energy to our relationship with the UK with other European countries. That was happening anyway, I think, after the kind of high watermark of separation from the EU and some difficult moments after Brexit, but now I think all the EU and the UK, and the countries of the EU, are thinking we've got to get together because we need each other.
ED: How do the consular authorities feel the expats view the exit from Europe, and how now it's panned out once all the rules and regulations have been in place for a while?
Sir Alex: Well, it would be most unwise of me to interpret the judgments of others. What it is, is its reality. So, the question is, what do you do now? You know, how would you make that reality work? And there's still a job for us to do and for everybody to do, actually. I'll give you one example. We now know, and I think it's the first time we've said this publicly, we now know that when the new Schengen entry-exit scheme comes into force, which at the moment is due later this year I think, that the green certificate will not be recognised as proof of residency in Spain, including the Canary Islands.
This means that, as an expat, you must have a TIE card as this is the only proof of residency the system will accept, so if you are a beneficiary of the withdrawal agreement, you have residence rights before the UK left the European Union, so to prove your status you can't just bring your old paperwork, you must change it for a TIE as it requires two bits of biometrics, namely, fingerprints and facial recognition.
ED: OK, so how will this affect you as far as travel is concerned?
Sir Alex: Well basically it means you will be treated in the same way as a tourist and potentially refused entry back into the country, which is why it is now very important to get the green certificate changed.
ED: Is there any estimation of how many people across Spain, including the Canaries, haven't yet changed their paperwork?
Sir Alex: We don't know for sure but still a sizable number of people have not yet changed it. I think people are so used to the old documentation, and to be fair to those people, after Brexit the Spanish government said that they weren't 100% clear about what would be the documentation, but now they are super clear. They have been honouring the old paperwork, but that changes as of now. Once the new scheme comes into force you need to have your TIE to avoid problems, so my big message to everybody is go out and get it.
ED: TIEs are a very hot topic at the moment as we're also coming to the first renewal period for the temporary ones, so have there been any issues getting one?
Sir Alex: I think there have been issues in the past getting appointments to process them, but we've been working with the Spanish authorities to make sure that they provide those and so forth. So, I would just encourage all of your readers to get one as now is the time to do it, because I think that there'll be strong pressure on the Schengen zone, on the EU side, plus a bunch of other countries to get the new scheme into place.
ED: One of the questions I'm sure you're asked all the time, and it's the one our readers want to know, is if there's going to be any flexibility on the usage of the 90 out of 180 days, particularly for people who own properties?
Sir Alex: Yes, it's an interesting subject. First of all, it is not the British government, or me, that sets that rule, it’s the European Union. Those are the rules of the EU of which we have no influence and the simple answer is I see no sign of them changing it.
ED: There's no potential deal?
Sir Alex: No, I don't see the EU changing that. It’s an EU law and it's very interesting that your readers are so interested in it, but I appreciate it’s because the Canaries are an all-year-round resort. However, I don't think I'm going to be able to change that because I don’t have the power to, and I think the Spanish would agree with that. Unfortunately, it's EU law and that's the way it is.
ED: One of the other things that business owners are affected by is lack of staff. Being able to employ seasonal staff, particularly from the UK. There's been all sorts of talk of different visas, maybe possible agreements for under 30s in the same way as Australia. Is there anything in the offing that would cater for that?
Sir Alex: I mean you're absolutely right; this has been talked about a lot and I've heard it in different industries actually, I remember the British schools saying getting teachers for example, has got more difficult. We have just started the process of negotiating a new partnership between the UK and the EU for some sort of movement. It could be a youth movement scheme; the EU has been raising that with the UK. The British government's been quite cautious about that, it's very clear that we're not going to return to the free movement which was part and parcel of being a member of the EU. I can't judge yet what may happen although I think there is caution about anything which is or looks like free movement.
I think you'll get a better sense of this when we have the summit between the Prime Minister, the EU leader, and the other heads of the EU countries on the 19th of May, as this will be the first summit between the EU and the UK since we've left the EU. What the outcome will be on this particular subject I don't know, but it is something on the agenda.
ED: Is there anything you'd like to leave our listeners and readers with?
Sir Alex: Just emphasis about the TIE. More than anything else, that is now clear to us, and so we just want to encourage everyone to act on it. We'll be doing plenty more communication around this, but I think it's the first time it's been absolutely clear to us and said publicly that you need to get your TIE.
ED: Thank you very much indeed for your time.
Sir Alex: You’re welcome, thank you.
