Spain hopes to reach an agreement with the UK over Gibraltar by the summer, its foreign minister has said. Alfonso Dastis said Spain would defend our position but the two sides were working towards an agreement as soon as possible. The UK says informal talks are going on about Gibraltar's post-Brexit future with Spain.
The Galician company which owns the “Playa Pesmar Uno” arrested last Sunday by the Argentine Coast Guard allegedly for illegal fishing in the South Atlantic, admits the trawler could have involuntarily sailed into the EEZ, because one of the three GPS on board was malfunctioning.
Gibraltar’s presence in an increasingly interconnected world means it will not be isolated as a result of Brexit, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said on Spanish television, even as he described the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union as “madness”.
Spain is considering constitutional changes that could allow its regions to hold referendums on independence in the future, the foreign minister says. Alfonso Dastis has told the BBC a nationwide vote on the issue could be held.
Spain has repeated its traditional position on Gibraltar during an address to the UN General Assembly in New York, describing the Rock as “an anachronism” and highlighting Madrid’s co-sovereignty proposal. Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis focused on Gibraltar briefly during a 17-minute speech that covered key areas of Spanish foreign policy.
Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alfonso Dastis, sought to reassure cross-border workers during a visit to La Linea, insisting Madrid would work to minimize the impact of Brexit on Spanish citizens, “and very especially those from the Campo and La Linea” who cross every day to Gibraltar.
Spain will not risk a Brexit deal by making Gibraltar’s sovereignty a condition in the talks, the country’s Foreign Minister said in an interview on Sunday. Speaking to the conservative newspaper ABC, Alfonso Dastis said Spain would not accept any agreement that undermined its position on Gibraltar, but would not use the Brexit talks to push its sovereignty aspirations over the Rock.
Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alfonso Dastis, will visit the Campo de Gibraltar in September to discuss the impact of Brexit on cross-border workers and the wider region. The forthcoming visit was announced late Thursday night following a meeting in Madrid between the minister and officials from the Campo.
Spain’s Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis called on Tuesday for calm in the row over Gibraltar’s inclusion in the EU guidelines, adding that he was surprised by the reactions in Britain. He was speaking amid a media frenzy after the EU said in its guidelines that Spain must agree before any future trade deal between the UK and the EU can be extended to Gibraltar.
Spain’s Foreign Minister, Alfonso Dastis, has told a leading German newspaper that Madrid will not be taking “any type of punitive measures” at the border with Gibraltar after Brexit. Dastis has made similar statements in recent days to Spanish media, but his comments to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung are the first time he has spoken about the border to the international media.