This statement is reproduced by kind permission of Panorama at http://www.panorama.gi
The Opposition considers that the latest response by the Foreign Secretary Robin Cook to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons is weak and does not give Gibraltar any guarantees that our rights will be protected by Britain. The Foreign Office does not seem to understand that defending our interests means taking action against Spain.
The GSLP/Liberal Opposition note that the Foreign Secretary underlines in his response that the British government "will stand by all its commitments and carry out all its obligations to the people of Gibraltar" There is nothing contained in the reply to give Gibraltarians any encouragement that anything practical is about to occur in this field. Moreover, it is sadly clear that the Foreign Office considers that defending our interests consists of repeating parrot-like empty statements and making ritual diplomatic protests, when it has been proved over the years that these have no effect whatsoever on Madrid.
There are a number of areas where the inaction of the Foreign Office is particularly glaring.
(1) Border Delays
The Foreign Secretary agrees that the length and extent of Spanish
controls at the frontier are "disproportionate" and
that the border regime should be normalised, yet all that has
been done is raise the matter with Madrid and Brussels. It will
be recalled at the time of the signing of the Amsterdam Treaty,
that Britain maintained that the delays at the frontier could
be challenged in court if they became "disproportionate",
as London now thinks that they are. The people of Gibraltar are
fed up of protests and fed up at the delays and it is about time
that Britain challenged the frontier queues in the European Court
without waiting for the Commission to act.
(2) Eurovote
It is nothing short of a scandal that the people of Gibraltar
have been illegally deprived the right to vote in European elections
by the British government all this time. The Foreign Office spent
years telling Gibraltar that this was so because the only way
we could be enfranchised was by changing the 1976 Act on Direct
Elections, and it was impossible to change it without the consent
of all EU Member States including Spain. In its latest response,
the Foreign Office now says that the "best method" to
proceed would be by changing the Act but "other options"
~~remain under consideration." It is deplorable that the
people of Gibraltar and even the House of Lords have been misled
all this time, when Lord Bethell's move to include Gibraltar in
the last euro elections was refused by the British government
on the basis that the only way this could be done was to change
the 1976 Act and that to do otherwise was illegal. The fact that
the Foreign Office says that it is now willing to explore "other
options" is a clear indication that they have not bothered
to do this before despite the number of representations made.
(3) Matutes Proposals
The Foreign Secretary has still not committed Britain to reject
the Matutes proposals at the next round of talks under the Brussels
agreement. This is a disgrace. The Matutes proposals, which aim
to make Gibraltar Spanish after a period of joint-sovereignty,
were unanimously rejected by the Gibraltar House of Assembly and
by the people of Gibraltar in a mass petition. It makes a mockery
for London to claim to respect the wishes of the Gibraltarians,
on the one hand, and keep the proposals alive even if they have
been rejected by all of us, on the other. It is also noteworthy
that the Foreign Office stands by the 1984 Brussels agreement,
even though the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and
the Opposition in Gibraltar have called for it to be abolished.
The Opposition is not satisfied with the response of the Foreign Secretary to the points raised in the report. Spain is continuously allowed to trample on the legal and European rights of the people of Gibraltar and get away with it in a way that no other colonial power would tolerate. The Foreign Office must take legal action against Spain to defend our legitimate rights. Words are no longer enough.
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