Ben Pawlowski
CHIEF Minister Fabian Picardo has returned to Gibraltar following his first face-to-face meeting with the UK’s new Labour government.
Picardo, accompanied by deputy chief minister Dr Joseph Garcia and the attorney general Michael Llamas, held a meeting with David Lammy, the UK’s foreign secretary, in London on Wednesday.
In a tweet, the chief minister said: “I am very pleased with the work David Lammy and I have done today, with our brilliant negotiating teams, to prepare to continue advancing toward a safe, secure and beneficial UK/EU treaty in respect of Gibraltar’s relationship with the EU”.
He added: “The support of the UK government for Gibraltar is fulsome and consistent in the transition from a Conservative to a Labour administration. We will continue to work hand in glove together in all our joint and several contact with our negotiating counterparts in the variable geometry that this negotiation entails. I remain optimistic that a positive outcome can be achieved for all parties whilst respecting each other’s important fundamental positions”.
Lammy tweeted: “This government is committed to concluding a UK-EU agreement which provides certainty for Gibraltar and its people. With Fabian Picardo today, I reaffirmed our support to them in all eventualities and reiterated that we will only agree to terms that Gibraltar is content with”.
The meeting is the first since Sir Keir Starmer became prime minister following the July general election where his Labour Party secured an enormous 174-seat majority.
The Spanish daily El País have reported that the Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares will travel to London in the coming weeks to meet the UK government as part of a last-ditch attempt to save a post-Brexit deal on Gibraltar before the EU’s new Entry/Exit system comes into force this November.
The main sticking points between Spain and the UK are reportedly demands from Madrid that Spanish officers who man border posts and check arrivals in Gibraltar be armed and wear uniform, as well as being able to freely circulate around the border area.
The UK has rejected this demand given that British officers are not usually armed.
In other areas, meanwhile, agreement has already been reached.
For example, a special fund will be created by the two countries so that Spaniards who have worked in Gibraltar but live in Spain will receive the same pension as those who reside in the tiny British Overseas Territory.
Negotiations over a treaty deal have worn ever since the 2016 Brexit referendum when the UK voted to leave the European Union.
However, Gibraltar, which was ceded by Spain to the British crown in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht, and has been subject to Spanish territorial claims, overwhelmingly voted to remain, placing its residents in limbo.
