MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar/Spain implementing practical aspects of “normal cooperation”

A branch of the Instituto Cervantes to promote Spanish language and culture will be opening in Gibraltar

A “hotline” between Gibraltar and Algeciras, Spain, for emergencies, the opening of a Cervantes Institute and cooperation in other fields were some of the results of the Forum for Dialogue on Gibraltar which met last Friday in the Foreign Office in London.

According to the official release delegates from Britain, Spain and Gibraltar held “constructive discussions in a positive atmosphere” and agreed a timetable and process for implementing the eight priority outcomes contained within the detailed framework for negotiations agreed at the Ministerial meeting last July in the Rock.

These were the enabling of a ferry link between Gibraltar and Algeciras, the opening of an Instituto Cervantes, the creation of an Environmental and Maritime Incident Hotline, customs cooperation, law enforcement cooperation, visa facilitation for Moroccan nationals, cooperation on the treatment of solid waste and a Tax Information Exchange Agreement.

The parties also reaffirmed their commitment to the implementation of agreements in the new areas of cooperation, as outlined in the July communiqué, by the time of the next Ministerial meeting in 2010, and agreed a timetable and process for working towards these agreements.

Gibraltar Chief Minister Peter Caruana, the Spanish Foreign Ministry’s Director General for Europe and North American Political Affairs, Luis Felipe Fernández de la Peña, and the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office Director for European Political Affairs, Tim Hitchens, led the delegations at the meeting.

The first pact that is likely to be literally on line will probably be the hotline between the Gibraltar and Algeciras ports, aimed at rapid response to any maritime incident in the area.

Chief Minister Caruana did not rule out joint exercises taking place ahead of the July 2010 ministerial and has also signalled that a series of technical meetings will now flow from the arrangements scheduled out in the London meeting.

It was at the Gibraltar ministerial – Caruana, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Spain’s Miguel Angel Moratinos - in July this year that the parameters for co-operation were set out in a long document.

“It went well. This was the first meeting since the Gibraltar ministerial and the work really focused on methodology for the detailed texts on agreements that are more technical than political,” said Mr Caruana.

“Now we are in the realms of ‘normal’ co-operation,” he said contrasting agreements on such things as police and customs co-operation with the long-standing non-recognition by Spain of things like the telephone code.

Caruana said the meeting was “technical rather than political”, helping to establish the architecture for achieving the objectives set out last July.

The priority is being given to the ‘low hanging fruit’ - things that can be implemented easily and promptly, emphasized Gibraltar’s Chief Minister.