MADRID (Reuters) - Spain plans to grant residency to about 400,000 British citizens in the event of a hard Brexit, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Friday, before the publication of Madrid's Brexit contingency plans.
The residency plan makes clear that measures agreed by Spain would be conditional on the same terms applying to Spaniards living and working in Britain, El Pais wrote.
The Brexit contingency legislation also applies to Gibraltar, El Pais wrote, while stressing that Madrid will insist on having a say on the application of any Brexit measure to the peninsula.
The bill will be sent immediately to parliament, which will soon be dissolved ahead of early elections. It only makes broad references to other issues, such as the fate of Spain's national airline, Iberia, which is majority-owned by Britain-based Anglo-Spanish group IAG (LON:ICAG).
The Spanish government approved a decree last month to hire 1,735 new public workers to deal with the consequences of Brexit, particularly in border and customs control.