UK, Spain Crank Up Gibraltar Talks

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

30 October 2001

It was confirmed yesterday during a meeting of European foreign ministers in Luxembourg that talks over the future status of Gibraltar had been taking place in recent weeks between officials of the British and Spanish governments. A British official said the discussions were part of the Brussels process set up in 1984. This has been in abeyance since the Matutes proposals for shared sovereignty were tabled in 1997 but was revivified at the Stockholm EU summit earlier this year. The official said that the meetings were routine preparations for substantive discussions.

Josep Piqué, Spanish foreign minister, said he welcomed the fact that the Brussels process had restarted, said that the next main meeting would be held in Barcelona on November 20. "It is good news," said Mr Piqué, "There is a political will to look for a solution."

The British official was more cautious, intoning as usual that there could be no change to the sovereignty of Gibraltar without the consent of its people. Gibraltarians, however, have long since stopped believing that the UK means to let Gibraltar prevent a resolution of the problem, which sours relationships inside the EU and gets in the way of Tony Blair's europhile agenda. They point to articles planted this week in the UK press by the Foreign Office which talk of shared sovereignty between Britain and Spain, or a sliding scale of sovereignty that would see control gradually pass to Spain. According to these articles, Jack Straw is giving the Gibraltar issue a much higher priority than his predecessor Robin Cook. Spain probably has its eyes fixed on its EU presidency in the first half of next year and will also want to make significant progress on the issue.

In Gibraltar itself, the government is being tight-lipped about its involvement in talks, although it joined with the opposition in supporting a large anti-British demonstration at the beginning of October. But in a letter to The Times yesterday, Opposition Liberal Party Leader Dr. Joseph Garcia says that the paramount consideration must be that Gibraltarians decide their future:

“Thankfully in the nearly 300 years that have elapsed since the Treaty of Utrecht was signed territories are no longer bandied about from one monarch to another regardless of the wishes of their inhabitants. In any case, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the very Charter of the United Nations itself have superseded this outdated treaty.

“The paramount consideration in the Gibraltar question must be the right of its inhabitants freely and democratically to decide their own future without restriction, harassment or pressure of any kind.”

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