For years, Spain has wrongfuilly tried to claim Gibraltar as its own. But now it's given up on the claim....
The Times April 22, 2006
Hopes of deal on future of Rock
By Edward Owen
Spain drops demands for sovereignty in more pragmatic approach to Gibraltar
AGREEMENTS on the use of the Gibraltar airport, telecommunications links and the payment of pensions to Spaniards who worked there years ago are expected soon, Peter Caruana, QC, the Chief Minister (their equivalent of Prime Minister) of Gibraltar, said yesterday.
He hoped that the deals would be signed this summer after talks had demonstrated a friendlier and more pragmatic approach by Spain. Progress had been made because Spain had agreed to sideline the main issue of its 400-year-old claim to sovereignty.
“The matter of sovereignty has no solution today,” he said. “We have a right to defend our future, and I defend the interests of my country. We demand self-determination, as did all the decolonised countries of the world.”
Mr Caruana, 49, who has been Chief Minister of the peninsula, population 31,000, since 1996, was speaking in Madrid to a forum of Spanish foreign ministry officials and businessmen.
He said that he expected agreements to be signed on joint use of the airport by Gibraltar and Spain, the supply of more telephone lines and telecommunications links by Spain for Gibraltar’s booming internet businesses, such as online gambling, and a solution to pensions owed to Spaniards who worked on the Rock until General Franco closed the border in 1969.
Mr Caruana’s speech was applauded by Sir Stephen Wright, the British Ambassador to Spain, and José Pons, the Spanish diplomat responsible for European and US policy.
Mr Caruana praised Madrid’s two-year-old socialist Government for bringing Gibraltar to the negotiating table between Britain and Spain, giving Gibraltarians a say in their future. “It was an intelligent and brave policy of dialogue to give a new perspective to the talks,” he said. “Spain has not modified its demands in any way, nor has Gibraltar, but at last we had an open agenda. The climate has changed, so we can advance to our mutual advantage.”
He said it was an anachronism that, under the 1704 Treaty of Utrecht, Spain had the right to reclaim Gibraltar if Britain relinquished control. He said that the new Gibraltar Constitution, approved this month and subject to a referendum by Gibraltarians, would give the Rock more control over its affairs.
Gibraltar’s businesses will welcome Spanish telecommunications. They have been stunted by a shortage of telephone lines, vital for the financial centre, which makes up 25 to 30 per cent of the economy of the self-sustaining community.
thetimesonline.co.uk
The Times April 22, 2006
Hopes of deal on future of Rock
By Edward Owen
Spain drops demands for sovereignty in more pragmatic approach to Gibraltar
AGREEMENTS on the use of the Gibraltar airport, telecommunications links and the payment of pensions to Spaniards who worked there years ago are expected soon, Peter Caruana, QC, the Chief Minister (their equivalent of Prime Minister) of Gibraltar, said yesterday.
He hoped that the deals would be signed this summer after talks had demonstrated a friendlier and more pragmatic approach by Spain. Progress had been made because Spain had agreed to sideline the main issue of its 400-year-old claim to sovereignty.
“The matter of sovereignty has no solution today,” he said. “We have a right to defend our future, and I defend the interests of my country. We demand self-determination, as did all the decolonised countries of the world.”
Mr Caruana, 49, who has been Chief Minister of the peninsula, population 31,000, since 1996, was speaking in Madrid to a forum of Spanish foreign ministry officials and businessmen.
He said that he expected agreements to be signed on joint use of the airport by Gibraltar and Spain, the supply of more telephone lines and telecommunications links by Spain for Gibraltar’s booming internet businesses, such as online gambling, and a solution to pensions owed to Spaniards who worked on the Rock until General Franco closed the border in 1969.
Mr Caruana’s speech was applauded by Sir Stephen Wright, the British Ambassador to Spain, and José Pons, the Spanish diplomat responsible for European and US policy.
Mr Caruana praised Madrid’s two-year-old socialist Government for bringing Gibraltar to the negotiating table between Britain and Spain, giving Gibraltarians a say in their future. “It was an intelligent and brave policy of dialogue to give a new perspective to the talks,” he said. “Spain has not modified its demands in any way, nor has Gibraltar, but at last we had an open agenda. The climate has changed, so we can advance to our mutual advantage.”
He said it was an anachronism that, under the 1704 Treaty of Utrecht, Spain had the right to reclaim Gibraltar if Britain relinquished control. He said that the new Gibraltar Constitution, approved this month and subject to a referendum by Gibraltarians, would give the Rock more control over its affairs.
Gibraltar’s businesses will welcome Spanish telecommunications. They have been stunted by a shortage of telephone lines, vital for the financial centre, which makes up 25 to 30 per cent of the economy of the self-sustaining community.
thetimesonline.co.uk
