22nd of September 2006

iPropertyCLUB News

New Gibraltar agreement

Historic agreement reached in Cordoba. Although the sovereignty issue was not on the table, the agreement is an important step in Anglo-Spanish diplomatic relations

NEGOTIATIONS began as they always begin when the Spanish and British get together to discuss the Gibraltar question, we are told by a Foreign Office spokesperson who has been studying the issue for many years. The Spaniards want to discuss the crux of the problem and the British want to discuss the details only.
The talks advanced calmly, although with the usual problems arising from time to time. Would the first meeting be in Spain, the second in Britain and the third in Gibraltar, or the other way around? Would there be a Spanish High Commissioner on the Rock? For the moment, no. Whoever suggested Faro, in Portugal, for the talks must have hoped for a round or two of golf between them.

The Spanish diplomats in the Trilateral Forum delayed the talks while waiting for the text of the Constitution that Gibraltar and London was negotiating at the same time. With the approval of Madrid of a draft constitution that would give Gibraltar more autonomy but fall short of full independence, the three parties were anxious to go ahead with discussions on the details at last. They had still been negotiating in August on how best to implement the first changes in the isthmus and its airport, and now the meeting continued with discussions about finance.

Caruana presents...

In the city of Cordoba last Monday, 18 months after the first meeting of the Trilateral Forum between Spain, Gibraltar and the United Kingdom, the Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel ángel Moratinos, the British Secretary of State for European, Geoff Hoon, and the Gibraltarian First Minister, Peter Caruana, presented the results of their efforts.

The agreement reached is in five parts, these being joint use of the airport, ease of cross-border travel, extension of telephone communications between Gibraltar and Spain, payment of outstanding pensions for Spanish workers in Gibraltar up to 1969 and the setting up of a Spanish Cultural Centre (Casa de España) on the Rock

The agreement was such a change in traditional Spanish policy with regard to Gibraltar that the British negotiators had trouble believing it was actually happening. Up to now, from the time the Spaniards first attempted to negotiate the return of Gibraltar in the 18th century through the efforts by the Franco minister, Fernando Castiella; the attempts at agreement by the UCD and PSOE governments following the transition from dictatorship to democracy and the more recent Lisbon negotiations, the agenda presented by the Spaniards had always been the same: priority for the sovereignty issue and everything else coming second.

General Franco had believed - having been assured by his Foreign Minister, Fernando Castiella, that it was true – that Churchill would hand back Gibraltar as a reward for Spain’s non-intervention in the Second World War. His subsequent disappointment turned to rage, and he ordered the border closed in 1969. It would not open again until the Socialists came to power in the early 1980s. It was then believed by the first democratic Spanish governments that Spain’s entry into NATO and the Common Market would resolve the problem in Spain’s favour, but this did not happen. The border was opened in the mistaken assumption that the inhabitants of both sides would gradually merge into one happy European family, and futile attempts were made to apply pressure in the form of customs go-slows and the blocking of European Commission directives, but the question of sovereignty remained as elusive as ever.

Then came the new centre-right government in Spain, which found a friend in Tony Blair, who, following the failure of the European directive on the liberalisation of air transport, decided to talk to Prime Minister José María Aznar on the question of sovereignty for Gibraltar. Aznar proved to be a stoic ally during the ‘Tireless’ nuclear submarine crisis, when the damaged sub docked in Gibraltar for repairs, and he entered into negotiations on shared sovereignty and joint use of the airport with Blair. Peter Caruana held a referendum on shared sovereignty, and it was rejected by 98.97 per cent of the Gibraltarian voters.

Status quo

Granada member of parliament Rafael Estrella, Socialist spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Commission in Congress, was the intellectual force behind the new diplomatic turn-around on the question of Gibraltar. He had warned as far back as 1999, during the fishing conflict between Spain and Britain in Algeciras Bay, that sovereignty would not be an issue easily understood by both sides, as he put it, and that it would therefore be better to set it aside and move on. And that is what they did.

CHRONOLOGy

4-8-1704

Conquest. A naval fleet made up of British and Dutch ships conquered Gibraltar during the War of the Spanish Succession. By the terms of the subsequent Treaty of Utrech in 1713, the Spanish crown ceded sovereignty of the territory to Britain.

Dilemma. The British resisted attempts at re-conquest, but considered the question of its cession back to Spain, considering Minorca to be of greater strategic value.

19th century

Weakness. Spain accepts the establishment of attention centres for yellow fever patients on the isthmus, on the request of its British allies during the War of Independence. The isthmus is thus occupied and the current frontier fixed.

Fears. London supports the United States in the Spanish-American war of 1898. Spain fortifies its defences against a possible American attack from Gibraltar.

1941-42

Operation Felix. Hitler and Franco plan an attack on Gibraltar, but Franco demands Morocco and Oran, among other territories, in return for German aid, and no agreement is reached.

Airstrip. An airstrip is built on the isthmus to assist in the allied advance. Eisenhower takes charge of the first big operation against Hitler in North Africa.

Francisco Franco

Churchill. The Duke of alba, Spanish ambassador to the Court of St. James’s, erroneously informs Franco that the British government will return Gibraltar in exchange for non-intervention in WW11.

Perfidious Albion. Subsequent disappointment prompts Spanish Foreign Minister Fernando Castiella to apply pressure on the British government, culminating in the closing of the border in 1969.

Adolfo Suárez

Frontier. On his first visit to London as Spanish Prime Minister, before the signing of the new Spanish Constitution of 1978, Suárez asks for discussions on Gibraltar to be re-opened. British Prime Minister James Callaghan responds by demanding that the border be re-opened first.

Lisbon. Foreign Minister Marcelino Oreja re-opens discussions, but London reminds him that no agreement can be reached against the wishes of the Gibraltarians.

Felipe González

Border. Foreign Minister Fernando Morán opens the border and presents ideas on shared sovereignty.

Brussels. Foreign Minister Francisco Fernández Ordóñez initiates a process which includes discussion on sovereignty. Agreement on joint airport use rejected in Gibraltar.

José María Aznar

Shared sovereignty. Foreign Minister Josep Piqué reaches agreement in principal on joint sovereignty in London for an undefined period.

Self-determination. The Gibraltarians vote overwhelmingly in a referendum against shared sovereignty with Spain.

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