The Gibraltar Government’s recently-appointed representative in Hong Kong, Jason Cruz, will succeed Albert Poggio as the Rock’s man in London in two years’ time, it was revealed in Parliament by Chief Minister Fabian Picardo who confirmed the decision as he answered Opposition questions about Mr Cruz’s salary and employment package.
Manuel Chaves, the PSOE (Socialist opposition party) MP and former president of the Junta de Andalucia, has said Spain’s policy on Gibraltar “is going nowhere” because Gibraltarians are the ones who will decide their own future.
A form of “nominal” co-sovereignty to be guaranteed UK, Spain and the EEC was proposed by Gibraltar Chief Minister, the late Sir Joshua Hassan, in January 1978, according to papers newly-released to The National Archives.
The Gibraltar Government is strengthening its lobbying presence in Brussels and Washington in order to ensure that the profile of Gibraltar is heightened at a political level. The Government plans to expand its representation in Brussels along similar lines to the Gibraltar London office.
The UK Ministry of Defense has played down claims that the British Government is to send additional military personnel to Gibraltar. The announcement follows reports in the Daily Express over the weekend that the British Government was to deploy additional sailors to Gibraltar to allow the Royal Navy to operate patrol boats 24 hours a day to challenge “nightmare incursions by Spanish fishing trawlers.”
The British Government torpedoed Spain’s bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games as a reprisal for the Spanish Government’s hard line stance on Gibraltar, Sir Graham Watson has claimed.
The Spanish Government has accused Britain of failing to tackle a sharp rise in tobacco smuggling at the border. In a statement marking the six-month deadline set by the European Commission following its visit last year, Spain also said that cooperation with law enforcement agencies in Gibraltar had deteriorated.
Grant Shapps, British Conservative MP and party chairman urged Gibraltarians to vote Tory in the EU election and reminded the Rock that Labor ‘tried to sell you down the river into the Mediterranean’. Shapps was speaking shortly after arriving in Gibraltar and paying a courtesy visit on acting Chief Minister Dr John Cortes.
On welcoming Chief Minister Fabian Picardo, UK minister for Europe David Lidington reaffirmed the strong bonds with Gibraltar and London's commitment to stand by the people of the Rock, while calling on Spain to implement EU recommendations to reduce border delays.
Britain’s Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband and Clare Moody, Labor candidate for the South West and Gibraltar in the coming European Parliamentary election have confirmed that Labor fully supports self determination for the people of Gibraltar.