Instituto Cervantes ‘prepared’ to reopen Gibraltar centre ‘as soon as possible’ 

Spain’s Instituto Cervantes has “everything prepared and studied” to reopen a branch in Gibraltar “as soon as possible”, included an allocated budget, its director said on Monday. 

Luis García Montero, who heads the Instituto Cervantes’ activities around the world, was speaking at the institute’s annual meeting in Jerez on Monday. 

The Cervantes Institute operated a centre in Gibraltar between 2011 and 2015, the product of the trilateral process and the Cordoba Agreement of 2006. 

It was shut by the hawkish Partido Popular Foreign Minister at the time, Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo, as part of a string of measures aimed at applying pressure on Gibraltar in 2015. 

At the time, Mr Margallo gloated: “The party is over.” 

Yesterday, Mr García said the Gibraltar centre had played “a very significant role” and become a cultural centre for dialogue between the Rock and the Campo de Gibraltar. 

It had also strengthened the teaching of Spanish in Gibraltar both for children and adults. 

“It carried out very important work,” Mr García said. 

“Unfortunately, the Cervantes centre in Gibraltar was closed because of political disagreements in the past, and we believe it should reopen because of everything it represents.” 

Mr Garcia said he found the new reality under provisional implementation of the UK/EU treaty on Gibraltar “very interesting”. 

“Returning to a dialogue that transcends the border fence seems very interesting to me, and what I can tell you is that we have everything prepared and studied,” he said. 

“We have even included an allocation in this year’s budget to begin the process of opening the Gibraltar centre from the next academic year.” 

“But, of course, that decision does not depend solely on the Cervantes Institute. It also depends on the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” 

“What I can tell you is that we have submitted a proposal for it to reopen as soon as possible and that the next budget includes an allocation for its reopening.”