Spain will not seek support from the Ibero-American summit to call on the UK to resume the bilateral dialogue on Gibraltar’s sovereignty as Argentina has done traditionally with the Falklands/Malvinas issue, according to Spanish diplomatic sources reported in the Madrid media.
The Roman Catholic Church in Spain has beatified 522 people, most of them priests and nuns killed by Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. Thousands of people attended the outdoor event in Tarragona, presided over by a senior Vatican cardinal.
Spain has been warned about the conduct of its law enforcement authorities in a new Council of Europe report. “Ill-treatment by and impunity of members of law enforcement agencies is a very serious, long-standing human rights issue for which Spain has already been condemned by international bodies” reads the study.
The number of Spaniards living in severe poverty has doubled to 3 million since the economic crisis erupted in 2008, according to a report released by the Caritas charity, taking as poverty line those who live on less than 307 €euros (414 dollars) a month.
Britain has enshrined, in a written statement to the United Nations, its commitment that it will not enter into a process of sovereignty negotiations with which Gibraltar is not content. And it has also reaffirmed its sovereignty over Gibraltar and its territorial waters, according to the Gibraltar Chronicle.
Spain has proposed sharing embassies, consulates and trade offices with its Latinamerican associate-members of the Pacific Alliance, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. Foreign minister Jose Manuel García Margallo said that the idea of sharing some embassies and consulates already is operational in the European Union.
Argentina has confirmed the purchase of 16 second hand Mirage F-1 decommissioned from the Spanish Air force in an operation valued at 170 million Euros. The expenditure is contemplated in the 2014 budget bill approved in the Lower House and which awaits debate in the Senate.
Spain will not be involved in ‘joint actions’ with Argentina regarding sovereignty claims over Gibraltar and Malvinas, said on Friday Spanish Foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo, arguing there had been ‘misinterpretations’ in the Argentine version of the bilateral ministerial meeting and which was first denied by the Moncla Palace.
President Mariano Rajoy making the round of financial media in New York this week, said Spain had emerged from recession in the third quarter with estimated economic growth of 0.1% to 0.2% forecast and 0.5% to 1% in 2014.
Addressing the UN General Assembly Spanish President Mariano Rajoy described the Gibraltar situation as a ‘colonial anachronism’ and criticized UK’s dialogue denial attitude on the Rock’s sovereignty. The speech comes at a tense moment in Gibraltar and Spain relations, but according to the Madrid press, Rajoy was less forceful than expected.