BREAKING: Gibraltar government planning to put in place an EMERGENCY budget for next few months

THE Government of Gibraltar has convened a meeting of Parliament for an emergency budget on Friday.

The Government is using the power to convene Parliament in an emergency, without having to give the usual five days notice.

The Opposition have all agreed not to ask questions for this meeting in a show of solidarity.

The Government has also published a Bill to amend the Appropriation Act 2019.

This will extend the financial year of 2019-20, as a budget session was due to be held in June and has now been rescheduled to September.

This will then enable the Government to put in place an emergency budget for the next few months.

The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said: “It is important we should meet now, whilst we know we are able to ensure that our finance laws, our Appropriation Act 2019, can cover the spending that we will need.

“What will be an initial six months extension to our budget year,” he continued.

The Chief Minister finished off his statement by saying: “This will also enable me to table emergency budget measures for business and to implement more measures as necessary by amending regulations and legislation as may be required to provide the necessary relief to businesses as this Covid-19 pandemic progresses.”