Gibraltar lawmakers unanimously approved new legislation that will dramatically expand Gibraltar’s network of agreements for the exchange of tax information. The legislation implements OECD’s Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in Gibraltar ahead of the March 1 deadline.
Pravda, Russia’s political newspaper associated with the Communist Party, welcomed Gibraltar into UEFA’s family in an article publish online on Thursday.
At the Annual General Meeting of UKOTA (United Kingdom Overseas Territories Association) held on Wednesday, Gibraltar was elected Chair of UKOTA. Albert Poggio the Gibraltar Government’s United Kingdom Representative, will represent Gibraltar in this role.
The Spanish Government is “furious” at Gibraltar’s high profile with EU decision makers, the Rock’s Liberal Democrat MEP, Sir Graham Watson, said on Monday. The lawmaker was speaking on the eve of a three-day visit to Brussels by a delegation from the Gibraltar Government led by Chief Minister Fabian Picardo.
Spain believes negotiation with Britain is the only realistic avenue for a resolution of the claim it makes over Gibraltar and its waters and that only by a decision of the United Nations can decolonization of the Rock be settled.
Britain’s ambassador to Spain has expressed concern about continued queues at the border between Gibraltar and Spain. Speaking to reporters during a visit to the Canary Islands, Simon Manley said the queues were “curious” given Spain’s high unemployment and the fact that many Spanish workers were caught up in the delays.
The European Union is not the only place where Spain punctiliously continues to press its position on Gibraltar as a clause in every international agreement. As recently as November 2013 amendment to the Basel Convention on the control of trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, Spain introduced, via the office of the UN Secretary General, a communication relating to the territorial application by UK to Gibraltar.
Royal Navy has sent additional personnel to Gibraltar to strengthen its Gibraltar Squadron in response to Spanish maritime incursions into British territorial waters.
The Spanish Government has “not taken any step back” in relation to its Gibraltar policy “but it has taken many steps forward”, the country’s foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo has declared. Despite the issue having dropped profile in the news since recent weeks, it is an issue “permanently” on the Spanish agenda, the Spanish official told Onda Cero radio.
A drop in the number of incursions by Spanish state vessels into British Gibraltar territorial waters could signal “a slight change in attitude” in Madrid, a British Government minister said on Monday. The observation was made during a question and answer session in the House of Lords in which there was evident cross-party support for Gibraltar in the face of pressure from Spain, reports Gibraltar's Chronicle.