Caruana Boycotts UK/Spanish Gibraltar Talks

by Justin Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

12 November 2001

Britain's abandonment of its pledge to respect the wishes of Gibraltarians before changing the colony's status has led Peter Caruana, Chief Minister, to boycott talks planned for November 20th in Brussels between the British and Spanish governments. Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister Peter Hain infuriated all parties in Gibraltar on a visit last month by saying that the colony 'had to move on' and implying that Britain was prepared to agree a deal with Spain on its sovereignty over Gibraltar.

Then, last week, after Tony Blair and Spanish leader Jose Maria Aznar discussed the issue at Downing Street, it became even clearer that Gibraltar was being offered a vote, but no veto over any agreement reached between the British and Spanish. On Friday, Peter Hain, Minister for Europe, told the Gibraltarians that the world was "completely unrecognisable" from that of 1969 - when the British government gave a constitutional commitment that sovereignty would never be transferred without the consent of Gibraltarians. Mr Hain added: "Everyone has moved on and so must the people of Gibraltar as well."

Mr Caruana told the BBC Radio 4 World At One programme: "Mr Hain expects the Gibraltar government to go along to talks on the basis that we will be consulted, but that he and Spain will be free to agree whatever they choose over our heads. We are saying: ‘Yes, we will go to talks, but agreements require the agreement of all of us, and not just the two of you’.

"The people of Gibraltar have been British for 300 years. We are a colonial people with the right to decide our own future. The idea that the sovereignty of Gibraltar can be handed around between the UK and Spain, either on a partial or shared basis, regardless of the wishes of the people of Gibraltar, is a democratically obscene position."

He added: "We frankly don’t see why we should be expected to give up our British sovereignty to buy off the Spanish blackmails and the Spanish vetoes of European business, which is really what is behind all of this."

Mr Hain tried to reassure Gibraltarians: "I can give a categorical assurance to the people of Gibraltar they will have a say, they will have a vote, but I urge their government to come to the table, to come to the talks. Why should Gibraltar’s voice not be heard in those talks between Spain and Britain? It is important that their voice is heard and I cannot for the life of me understand why they’re boycotting them."

British Opposition deputy leader Michael Ancram said: "These do not sound like the comments of a minister about to enter even-handed discussions. We stand by our commitment to the people of Gibraltar that there can be no change to their status without the consent of a majority of the people of Gibraltar."

In a 1967 referendum, Gibraltarians voted by 12,138 to 44 to retain their colonial status. Two years later, Britain pledged never to accept a change of sovereignty "against their freely and democratically expressed wishes". Now Messrs. Blair, Straw and Hain appear ready to abandon the Rock along with their principles. Shame on them.

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