Spain Says Gibraltar's People Will Not Decide Over Sovereignty

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

26 November 2001

Josep Pique announced last week that Spain would pay no heed to the results of a referendum over sovereignty, asserting that the rock would become Spanish 'at some point'.

'Negotiations between two sovereign states cannot be subsumed to the will of 30,000 Gibraltarians. The opinion of 30,000 people will not dictate the will of two sovereign states,' the Spanish Foreign Minister said on Tuesday.

This directly contradicts UK policy on this subject. According to Mr Pique, the British Foreign Minister Jack Straw, is said to have promised that he would not back the jurisdiction's right to self-determination, and many Gibraltarians believe that in the absence of Peter Caruana, who has boycotted the most recent talks, the British and Spanish Foreign Ministers are cooking up a deal.

However, speaking last Friday, a Foreign Office spokesman put the department's position on the issue very forcefully: 'We are absolutely clear,' he confirmed. 'We would hold a referendum and respect its outcome.' The spokesman added: 'We cannot comment on Mr Pique's remarks which are no doubt intended for a domestic audience.'

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