John Culatto
TWO young people will represent Gibraltar at the UK overseas territories youth summit after writing essays that impressed the judge.
Caretaker Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Garcia congratulated Anna Grech and Karim Acolina for booking their places at the summit in London on November 16.
The pair wrote short essays of a maximum of 500 words on the challenges of Gibraltar after Brexit which were then judged by former teacher Albert Danino.
Now the government will fund their trips to the summit as ambassadors for Gibraltar.
“The purpose of the Youth Summit is to promote dialogue across the Overseas Territories and empower youth by encouraging debate and innovative thinking,” the government said in a statement.
The youth member of the sitting chair of the UK Overseas Territories Association who comes from the Falkland Islands will oversee this year’s debate.
“I am delighted than Anna and Karim will be representing Gibraltar at this year UK Overseas Territories Youth Summit,” Garcia said.
“I am sure they will be great ambassadors for Gibraltar and I would like to thank Mr Albert Danino for agreeing to judge the competition and select its winners.”
The summit will bring together young people from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean with opinions on how to represent their British nationality.
House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle has expressed his support for the summit.
In an opinion piece with Merco Press he described the Overseas Territories as having been the ‘poor relation’ of the British family of nations.
But he said he was ‘pleased’ by recent conferences that have highlighted their needs and concerns.
“Not only were the discussions insightful and helpful, but they also brought a sense of community among us, with topics ranging from security and climate change to separation of powers,” Hoyle wrote.
“Despite the differences in the size of our nations, we discovered that many of our concerns and issues are similar, if not the same,” he added.
Gibraltar has been a firm part of this push to represent Overseas Territories’ interests, focusing on this community after the Brexit fallout.
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