The Queen of Gibraltar and the Rock’s evacuation generation were honoured on National Day Thursday by thousands of Gibraltarians who crammed into Casemates Square dressed in red and white.
The Spanish Government’s measures toward Gibraltar are ‘bearing fruit, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel García-Margallo said in a weekend interview in which he vowed to maintain pressure on the Rock. Although the minister’s tough language on Gibraltar was nothing new, it was the second time within the space of a week that he had spoken out on the Rock.
Spain has been accused of an “outrageous” and “unlawful” violation of British sovereignty after boats entered UK waters in Gibraltar on Sunday. Helicopters were also flown over a beach on the British territory as Spanish police chased criminals on the water, a move branded extremely dangerous by the Government of Gibraltar.
Environment Ministers from the UK Overseas Territories (OTs) and Crown Dependencies (CDs) gathered together for the first time ever in Gibraltar’s Garrison Library last week to consider the environmental challenges facing the Territories.
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo explained in detail Gibraltar’s views on self-determination during a ‘cordial’ meeting with Ecuadorian diplomat Xavier Lasso Mendoza, the Chairman of the United Nations Decolonization Committee of 24, in New York on Tuesday, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.
Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo is in New York for a meeting with the Chairman of the UN’s Decolonization Committee of 24, ambassador Xavier Lasso Mendoza. The meeting arose from the Chief Minister’s intervention before the C24 last month, during which the Ecuadorian diplomat confirmed he had met with a Spanish government minister to discuss Gibraltar, according or a report from the Gibraltar Chronicle.
The ‘best brains in Gibraltar’ will work together for the common good under plans for a proposed Gibraltar Consultative Council. The aim is to set up a permanent forum that will work along the same lines as the UK’s Privy Council, providing non-partisan advice to the Chief Minister of the day on issues of national importance, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.
If tripartite talks were restarted between Gibraltar, Spain and UK and agreements reached, as they were under the ‘Cordoba’ experience, these would almost certainly need to take the form of treaties so that Spain can be relied on to stick to them. Nevertheless 2015 is year of elections in UK, Spain and Gibraltar.
Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia are in Washington DC for a series of commercial and political meetings, which took off at the US Chamber of Commerce building in order to support the formal accreditation of AmCham Gibraltar.
Spanish Foreign Ministry briefings to media designed to reinforce Spain’s assertion that the Tripartite Talks are dead were challenged this weekend by the UK Government. In an unusual move Simon Manley, the British Ambassador to Spain, wrote to El Pais to correct their report which suggested that the ad hoc talks were a new phase of dialogue replacing the tripartite talks and that UK had changed its position on talks.