Buttigieg says treaty reflects Gibraltar as a self-governing community

The UK/EU treaty on Gibraltar reflects the reality of a self-governing community whose future is shaped by its own institutions, laws and decisions, Richard Buttigieg, the chairman of the SDGG, told the UN’s Committee of 24 in New York on Monday.

Addressing the committee, Mr Buttigieg said the agreement showed Gibraltar had been recognised as requiring a separate arrangement tailored to its own circumstances following Brexit.

“The starting point is simple but critical,” he said.

“Gibraltar has been treated as requiring a bespoke international agreement, separate from both the United Kingdom and the European Union’s general framework.”

“We have therefore been recognised, because we could not be ignored.”

Mr Buttigieg said the structure and wording of the agreement pointed to Gibraltar operating through its own institutions and legal system, rather than simply being administered by others.

“The Parties are defined as the European Union and the United Kingdom ‘in respect of Gibraltar.’”

“That formulation acknowledges that this agreement operates through Gibraltar’s own institutions, Gibraltar’s own laws, and Gibraltar’s own lived reality.”

“Indeed, the agreement expressly recognises that the ‘Parties’ laws’ includes the laws of Gibraltar.”

“This is not the language of administration.”

“It is the language of a jurisdiction.”

“It is the language of a people governing themselves.”

On sovereignty, Mr Buttigieg acknowledged that the treaty preserved the positions of the UK and Spain.

“Article 2 of the treaty makes clear that nothing in the agreement affects the positions of the United Kingdom or Spain,” he said.

But he argued that setting that dispute aside allowed the reality of Gibraltar’s modern political and institutional life to come into sharper focus.

“Some might say that this limits the significance of the agreement,” he said.

“But for us, it does something far more important. It sets that dispute aside and allows the reality of Gibraltar today to speak for itself.”

“Because once sovereignty is set aside, what remains?”

“What remains is Gibraltar as it actually exists, a community with its own institutions, its own laws, its own responsibilities, and its own voice.”

Mr Buttigieg said that was where the real significance of the treaty lay, arguing that the agreement treated Gibraltar as “a jurisdiction with its own legal and regulatory systems” and “a participant in structured international cooperation”.

He told the committee this was not an abstract legal point but a reflection of daily life on the Rock.

“That is not theory. That is evidence,” he said.

“And for the people of Gibraltar, it resonates at a deeper level.”

“Because we know, not from reading a treaty but from living it, that we are not a relic of the past.”

“We are not an unresolved footnote of history.”

“We are a modern, self-governing community.”

“We have voted time and again for our future.”

“We have forged an identity that is both British and uniquely Gibraltarian.”

Mr Buttigieg said the agreement reflected that lived reality “quietly, implicitly, but unmistakably”, describing the treaty as one based on “cooperation, not control” and “respect, not assumption”.

He ended by challenging the continued description of Gibraltar as a colony in light of how it functions in practice and how it is treated in the treaty.

“If Gibraltar governs itself, regulates itself, sustains itself, and is treated in international agreements as a distinct and capable jurisdiction, on what principled basis can it still be described as a colony?” he asked.

Mr Buttigieg said Gibraltar was seeking neither special treatment nor rhetoric, but rather “honest recognition” of its current reality.

“We ask that the lived reality of our people be given the legal weight it deserves,” he said.

“Because the question is no longer whether Gibraltar has evolved.”

“The question is whether the international community and this committee in particular is prepared to recognise that it has.”