MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar, Spain and UK implement trilateral agreements

Improved communications and Spanish culture for the Rock

The communiqué on the meeting of the Forum of Dialogue on Gibraltar, between Spain, the United Kingdom and Gibraltar, which took place on November 5 and 6 in Castellar de la Frontera points out progress made in a long agenda of common issues.

The three participants have reviewed the implementation of the arrangements agreed at the Córdoba Ministerial meeting on September 18th 2006 regarding the pensions of the former Spanish workers in Gibraltar, telecommunications issues, Gibraltar airport, fluidity of movement across the fence/frontier and the establishment of an Instituto Cervantes in Gibraltar, and are pleased to acknowledge the satisfactory implementation of all these agreements. Regarding the agreement on pensions, the participants are happy to note that in April the affected Spanish pensioners received from the United Kingdom the first tranche of the lump sum, as well as their uprated payments since that date. Likewise, the participants have welcomed the positive changes in telecommunications since the beginning of this year consequent on the implementation of the Córdoba agreements which has addressed the limitations on the number of telephone numbers in Gibraltar accessible from the Spanish network and the issue of mobile roaming. Regarding the fluidity of movement across the fence/frontier, the participants welcomed the substantial improvements so far attained and discussed ways to further improve arrangements as foreseen in Córdoba. In this respect, the participants welcomed the imminent reinforcement in manpower on the Spanish side that will help to consolidate and enhance those improvements in the context of normal requirements imposed by the circulation between two territories with different customs regimes and given also the fact that the UK (and thus Gibraltar) are outside the Schengen area for external borders purposes. The participants reaffirm their determination to continue their customs cooperation in relation to illegal activities. Regarding the Córdoba Ministerial Statement on the airport, the participants wish to underline that the arrangements have been complied with as envisaged in the Statement. The Government of Gibraltar is at an advanced stage of the design and tender phase of the project for the construction of the new passenger air terminal. The contractor is expected to be appointed during January 2008 and construction will begin shortly thereafter. The Córdoba airport Statement established a Permanent Joint Liaison Committee of the participants as a forum to consider at a technical level any problem or issue relating to the functioning of the arrangements agreed in Córdoba. This Committee will meet again before the end of the year. The Government of Gibraltar is now in a position to allocate a building for use by the Instituto Cervantes. The Government of Gibraltar and the Instituto will meet during the next two weeks to deal with this and finalize the necessary related arrangements. The Instituto Cervantes will initiate its activities in Gibraltar with a cultural event that will take place before the end of this year and will soon appoint the Director of its Gibraltar centre. The Government of Gibraltar has agreed to make temporary premises available to enable the Instituto to become established in Gibraltar during the next few weeks. At today's meeting, individual participants submitted discussion papers in respect of possible aims and objectives for each of the issues on the forward agenda, namely: cooperation on environment, financial services and taxation, judicial and police issues, education, maritime communications and visa related issues. This agenda will consolidate the Forum and generate sustainable and wide-ranging mutual cooperation. We have had a preliminary discussion of these papers and have agreed that this work will be taken forward through technical working groups once the objectives have been agreed. The Forum of Dialogue on Gibraltar discussed maritime traffic and incidents in the area, e.g. "New Flame" and welcomed the close cooperation in relation to these incidents between the Gibraltar Maritime Administration and the Capitanía Marítima del Puerto de Algeciras and encourages enhanced cooperation in such matters. Comprehensive cooperation in maritime safety and environment issues constitutes an important part of the agreed future agenda of the Forum. The Forum of Dialogue also discussed the activities of "Odyssey Marine Exploration" in the region. The participants call for more transparency on "Odyssey's" part and urge its cooperation with the Spanish authorities to satisfy them that there has been no breach of Spanish laws. The participants will remain in close touch on this issue.