Gibraltar Will Not Give An Inch On Sovereignty Issue Says Caruana

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

12 September 2003

As Gibraltarians celebrated National Day this week, the jurisdiction's Chief Minister Peter Caruana made a speech that indicated in the strongest possible terms his government's stance on the sovereignty issue, saying any attempt to revive joint-sovereignty talks would be opposed "every inch of the way" by Gibraltar.

"Spanish prime ministers come and go and we stay," proclaimed Caruana. "One has come and one has gone in the last few days. They couldn’t wait fifteen minutes to re-state their permanent claim to Gibraltar. No Government of Gibraltar has ever been willing or will ever be willing to negotiate the transfer of any part of our sovereignty to Spain," declared the Chief Minister.

"I have a message for London and Madrid. If you re-start the joint-sovereignty negotiation, we will re-start our political campaign to oppose you every inch of the way," he added emphatically.

Gibraltarians finally won their right to vote in European Parliamentry elections when the United Kingdom's Electoral Commission announced last month its recommendation that the Rock be amalgamated into the UK's South West constituency in preparation for the next vote due to take place again in 2004.

The UK government was compelled to enfranchise the populace of Gibraltar following a judgement handed down by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Matthews vs UK in 1999. The case was brought by Ms Matthews on the grounds that Gibraltar's exclusion from the European electoral process was a clear violation of the population's human rights.

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