MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar chief complicates Britain-Spain talks on Rock

By calling a referendum on the fate of the peninsula, Gibraltar Chief Minister Peter Caruana has again complicated matters for Britain and Spain, which appear eager to come to terms on the future of the disputed colony.

As soon as Caruana announced the initiative on Thursday, a Foreign Office communique warned him that Britain would not recognize a referendum called "simply to reject the government's policy without any thought, discussion or time for proper debate." "That would short-circuit democracy and short-change the people of Gibraltar," the statement added.

"The question this referendum will not answer is how to secure a stable and prosperous future for Gibraltar in a changing world," a Foreign Office spokesman said, adding, "We strongly believe the only way ... is through dialogue." Caruana, Gibraltar's top elected official, who wants to hold the vote in October, when London and Madrid will have already resumed negotiations, was quick to tell the BBC that the Foreign Office's response is "an insult to democracy." Britain, as Premier Tony Blair, Foreign Minister Jack Straw and Minister for Europe Peter Hain have repeatedly stressed, is determined to reach an agreement with Spain on shared sovereignty over Gibraltar, no matter how long it takes. That was the thrust of Straw's address to the House of Commons on July 12, immediately after new Spanish counterpart Ana Palacio took office.

Caruana's announcement on Thursday came within hours of statements from Madrid hailing a proposal to make the British naval base a NATO facility, which would give Spain unprecedented access. Portrayed as a new initiative by some Spanish and British media, London insists it is no such thing.

A Foreign Office official consulted to the international news agency EFE said "There is absolutely no new proposal ... The Gibraltar naval base is British-controlled and will continue to be so." "The naval base in Gibraltar is under British control. Nothing has changed," Blair said Thursday at a Downing Street press conference, noting that whatever decision the government takes regarding NATO, the base itself would remain a British dependent territory.

"If the question is whether the United Kingdom is going to share military sovereignty over the base with Spain, the answer is no," Blair insisted. Palacio herself was noncommittal on the NATO suggestion.

"Everything has to go through the proper ... channels," Palacio said, adding that "proposals are not made through the newspapers." Palacio is scheduled to meet with Straw in early fall to continue talks - initiated in 1984 and dubbed the Brussels Process - aimed at deciding Gibraltar's future.

Foreign Secretary's reaction

LABOUR faced a furious backlash from union leaders and its own backbenchers yesterday after the Foreign Office said it would refuse to recognise the result of an unofficial referendum on the future of Gibraltar.

Peter Caruana, the chief minister of Gibraltar, has announced plans to hold the plebiscite in October to try to pre-empt negotiations between Britain and Spain on joint sovereignty.

But Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, described the decision as "eccentric" and insisted the UK government would only recognise a referendum which it had helped to organise.

"I think it is a rather eccentric, rather expensive idea to tell us what we knew already. But it won't make any difference to the realities of the people in Gibraltar and it is those realities that we are trying to deal with," Mr Straw said.

The intransigence of the British government infuriated Mr Caruana and was widely condemned by Labour backbenchers as "insulting" and "inflammatory".

"Only the Foreign Office could describe a referendum, which is an opportunity for ordinary people to express their views in private, as an undemocratic and short-changing step," said Mr Caruana.

"People in Gibraltar don't want joint sovereignty, we have been making that clear for eight months. Jack Straw has now agreed it in principle with Spain."

Bill Morris, the general secretary of the Transport and General Workers union which represents a large number of workers on the Rock, said: "Jack Straw's arrogant rejection of the proposed referendum is seen as an insult to democracy."

Lindsay Hoyle, a Labour MP and chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Gibraltar, said: "I would have thought the British government should have abandoned the talks after the hypocrisy and double standards shown by Spain over Parsley Island. But unfortunately, what we have seen is instead of dampening down the situation, the Foreign Office have inflamed the whole issue."