The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Co-operation of the Kingdom of Spain, Miguel Angel Moratinos, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, David Miliband, and the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Mr Peter Caruana, held the third Ministerial Meeting of the Forum of Dialogue in Gibraltar on July 21, 2009, under the terms of the Joint Communiqué of December 16, 2004.
As foreshadowed in London in July last year, participants further confirmed their commitment to the creation of a constructive atmosphere of mutual confidence and cooperation for the benefit and prosperity of Gibraltar and the whole region, noting in particular that cooperation and mutual trust should become the norm between Gibraltar and Spain.
The Gibraltar government released a communiqué and a statement, welcoming progress in the discussions under a cordial and constructive atmosphere. It announced that progress has been made in six areas first outlined during the 2008 London meeting, namely the environment; financial services and taxation; judicial, customs and police cooperation; education; maritime communications and safety; and visa-related issues.
With regards to cooperation within financial services and taxation, Spain and Gibraltar highlighted their desire to establish normal lines and methods of cooperation including the exchange of information on tax matters to aid in the investigation of tax crimes. The countries also agreed to establish liaison and exchanges between regulatory authorities, and increase cooperation on taxation and anti money laundering issues and policies.
“We have agreed that there should be full co-operation in the common objective to fight crime whether local or international, and address the particular challenge of organised crime,” notes the communiqué, adding: “The detailed framework that we have approved today therefore lists a series of areas in which we will seek agreements to ensure that this occurs, including exchange of information, joint operations, simplified and clear channels of communication and agreed procedures.”
“We are committed to reaching agreements in these areas as soon as possible, preferably by the end of this year, and in any event by next year’s ministerial round. We have reaffirmed that, as was the case with the Cordoba Statements, any agreements in these areas would have no implications whatsoever regarding sovereignty and jurisdiction,” the communiqué concludes.
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