MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Progress in tripartite talks for Gibraltar airport

A Basle (*) inspired, technically imaginative, one shared terminal airport agreement appears to be taking shape as the strongest way forward to unblock the long standing restrictions on the development of the Gibraltar airport.

At the end of the second round of the tripartite forum between United Kingdom, Spain and Gibraltar, held in Albufeira, Portugal, one of southern Europe's leading tourist resorts, the concept of one airport terminal that can be of benefit to the two communities ? Gibraltar and the Campo, Spain ? gathered momentum.

However Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana, who was reticent to be drawn to the detail of the discussions, revealed that the new arrangements "would avoid Spanish travellers having to cross the frontier with their bags on a trolley to board their flight."

In respect of customs and immigration controls, Mr Caruana advanced that the system to be introduced would be "different to what we have at present".

Other issues by the two days tripartite forum besides the complex airport issue included an extensive range of matters such as the frontier/fence distinction, (frontera/ verja) more of a deep-seated political discrepancy than a mere semantic variation, Spanish pensions, the possibility of additional telephone numbers and a roaming agreement for the Rock, and other areas of cross-border cooperation.

The Foreign Office was represented by Dominick Chilcott and Spain by Eduardo Pons from the European Department of the Spanish Foreign Affairs ministry.

An official joint statement was issued following the second round of trilateral talks held at Faro (Portugal) on 8 and 9 July 2005, of the Forum of Dialogue between the Governments of the United Kingdom, Spain and Gibraltar established at Chevening, Kent on the 8 and 9 December 2004.

"The three participants in the dialogue forum have held a constructive and fruitful second meeting, in the amicable atmosphere which has characterised this forum from the start, despite the difficult and complex issues that it has to deal with.

"The meeting has focused primarily on the airport, frontier/fence, pensions and telecommunications. Other issues discussed include cross-border environmental co-operation, co-operation in cultural and sporting matters and police and judicial co-operation.

"In relation to a possible agreement relating to the use of the Gibraltar Airport the participants continued to explore the possibilities for agreements on terms acceptable to all of them. Progress has been made. The participants are committed to work intensively in order to reach an agreement as soon as possible.

"The issue of the pensions of the former Spanish workers in Gibraltar has been thoroughly discussed by the participants. All of them agree that this is an important and sensitive issue particularly taking into account the age of those affected. Therefore, and in the light of further detailed information made available by all three participants, they have reviewed the work to date of the Technical Working Group and they agreed to hold a further meeting of this Group to establish and assess the facts in September. The meeting also took note of the EU Commission's letter to the British Government on this issue.

"The participants discussed the plans, recently announced by the Spanish Government, to improve the flow of people and vehicular traffic across the fence/frontier and the customs and immigration control.

"The forum also reviewed the work of the Technical Working Group on Telecommunications which had met several times since the Malaga meeting. The aim is to find a way acceptable to all sides, to increase the number of Gibraltar telephone numbers accessible from the Spanish network and to facilitate mobile roaming. The Forum was pleased to note that the Technical Working Group was making good progress in identifying possible solutions".

(*) Basle is a city in Swiss territory but it shares the airport with the neighbouring cities of Freiburg, Germany, and Mulhouse, France.