MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK denies any surrender of Gibraltar sovereignty.

The British Government has categorically denied a report that it is involved in a secret deal for sharing sovereignty of Gibraltar with Spain or gradually surrendering the territory to total Spanish control.
If this were true, it could be seriously worrying for the Falklands Islands in combating Argentina's sovereignty claim. But the Foreign Office in London has assured Mercopress it is not true.

"Total rubbish" was its reaction when Mercopress queried the report, carried in the Guardian newspaper (on October 29), and written by the newspaper's diplomatic editor, Ewen MacAskill. Under the headline "UK and Spain work on secret deal over Gibraltar", the report says that in efforts to resolve the 300-year old dispute with Spain, the British Foreign Office is discussing options including "sharing sovereignty between Britain and Spain or a sliding scale of sovereignty that would see control gradually pass to Spain".

These are similar to the kind of proposals strenuously resisted by Falkland Islanders, who, in their dispute with Argentina, have been repeatedly re-assured by the United Kingdom Government that there will be no change to British sovereignty over the Falklands without the Islanders' consent,Gibraltar has a similar UK guarantee, which has been re-emphasised in Parliament by the Deputy Foreign Minister, Peter Hain.

Minister's re-assurance in Parliament

Replying to a question in the House of Commons (on October 30th) requesting a statement on UK policy on Gibraltar's sovereignty, the Minister declared: "The Government stands by its commitment to the people of Gibraltar set out in the preamble to the 1969 Constitution which enshrines the principle of consent of the people of Gibraltar to any change in sovereignty. Through the dialogue in the recently resumed Brussels Process we aim to build a better future for Gibraltarians including normalising relations with Spain".

A Foreign Office official told Mercopress: "There is no secret deal, and no proposals on the table from either side; but there will be another meeting on Gibraltar in Barcelona on November 20th between British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and the Spanish Foreign Minister, Josep Pique". Representatives of Gibraltar are taking part in the talks with Spain as they have done previously.

Foreign Minister Pique has criticised Britain's "unwillingness to reach an agreement", describing Gibraltar as "an impediment to bilateral relations reaching full fruition". He called Gibraltar a "parasite on the Spanish economy".

Mr Hain told the Gibraltar Chronicle earlier this year that he wants to "normalise" the situation