Walter Finch
SOURCES on the Rock have moved to dampen speculation that the presence of a team of officials from the UK Foreign Office signals that a deal is imminent.
The chatter has been mounting in recent days that the signing of a long-awaited treaty between the UK and the EU over the status of Gibraltar could be sealed as soon as this week.
The latest reports in the Spanish press indicate that four officials from London met with high-ups of the Gibraltar government and the Chamber of Commerce – including president John Isola – two weeks ago to discuss ‘day-to-day trade relations with Spain.’
Spanish daily Europa Sur wrote that its sources ‘interpret the content discussed in the brief but intense tour of the Rock as a preamble to an agreement that will end customs controls at the border and revive major trade developments between the territory and the EU.’
However, sources within the Chamber have told the Olive Press that while a delegation from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) did meet with Isola, delegations coming to the Rock were ‘nothing new’ and have been occurring ‘virtually every month for the past year at least.’
As well as the most recent meeting, another delegation visited in January.
Speculation has been mounting after Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and his team announced they are in London this week for what has been described as the ‘final round’ of talks.
Also at the meeting were new faces in the form of European Commission Principal Adviser Clara Martinez Alberola and Spanish State Secretary for the EU Fernando Sampedro amid reports that the serious issues have been resolved and only a few technical ‘loose ends’ remained.
This belief has been underlined by the news that one of the most serious stumbling blocks, that the British MOD retain total autonomy over the military base in Gibraltar, has been resolved.
Meanwhile, the mayor of San Roque, Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix, who is also Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Spain’s Congress of Deputies, said that ‘only small details remain to reach an agreement.’
“We hope that this round of negotiations has been fruitful, in which the residents who have a working relationship with Giraltar end up enjoying the greatest fluidity and improved communication, so that the pensions received by Spanish workers with decades of work in Gibraltar are also balanced, and also to resolve other issues such as the Schengen Law, the Schengen Code, which in this case allows for controlled access in which our country continues to be responsible for the secure southern access to the European Union,” Ruiz added.
This story has been amended to clarify that FCDO teams have been coming to Gibraltar every month, and not meeting with the Chamber of Commerce every month
