MADRID (AP) -- Gibraltarians gathered Wednesday for national day celebrations months before a fence separating the contested territory at the tip of the Iberian peninsula from Spain was expected to be dismantled.

It was the first such celebration since the European Union and the U.K. reached a deal in June to ease cross-border trade and travel in Gibraltar.

The festivities commemorate the 1967 referendum over the status of the Rock, as the territory is popularly called in English. Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to remain part of the U.K., rather than to join Spain, which was ruled at the time by dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.

Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said the celebrations this year "carry added significance."

In June, the EU said that all physical barriers, checks and controls on people and goods moving between Spain and Gibraltar will be removed. At a time when many countries are erecting new or higher border walls, that includes the fence separating Gibraltar from Spain that some 15,000 people cross every day.

The deal is expected to take effect in the first half of 2026.

Britain left the European Union in 2020 with the relationship between Gibraltar and the bloc unresolved. Until June, talks on a deal to ensure the flow of people and goods across the Gibraltar-Spain border had made only halting progress.

Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain has maintained its sovereignty claim ever since. Relations concerning the Rock have had their ups and downs over the centuries.

In Britain's 2016 Brexit referendum, 96% of voters in Gibraltar supported remaining in the EU. The tiny territory on Spain's southern tip depends greatly on access to the EU market for its 34,000 inhabitants.