With the border gates between Spain and Gibraltar now open, the spring of 1983 was to be the time which saw a real start being made on the negotiations heralded by the Lisbon Agreement. The first opportunity for talks presented itself on 16 March, when (on the first visit made by a member of Felipe González's Government to Britain) Foreign Affairs Minister Fernando Morán went to London as part of a series of bilateral visits he was making to European Community countries. Gibraltar was not of course the exclusive— or even the main—item on the agenda, but it was there, and no doubt higher up on Sr Morán's list of topics than on that of Francis Pym or Mrs Thatcher.

The day before the talks, El País noted that although Britain had been very supportive since 1975 of Spain's desire to establish closer ties with the rest of Europe as far as defence and trade were concerned, an element of resentment at some of Spain's remarks during the Falklands/Malvinas crisis had appeared in British comments during the past year. This did not offer much encouragement to the Spanish visitors; the best that was hoped for was that working parties might be set up on the most contentious aspects of the Gibraltar question in order to prepare the ground for negotiations.

This was not the only factor which did not augur well for the talks. The correspondent of El País noted three reasons why little progress was likely.