CM pays tribute to treaty partners in final diplomatic reception address

By Brian Reyes in London

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo thanked British, Spanish and European ministers and officials on Monday night for helping secure a treaty he said protected Gibraltar’s sovereignty while opening a future of shared prosperity with the Campo, in what was his final address at a Gibraltar Day diplomatic reception.

Speaking at 12th Knot in London’s Sea Containers building, Mr Picardo said the agreement demonstrated that Gibraltar’s people could shape their own future, drawing a link between the resilience of earlier generations and the outcome of years of negotiations.

He told diplomats, parliamentarians and former Governors that support for Gibraltar had remained consistent through successive changes of government in the UK and expressed confidence that it would continue whoever succeeded him after he steps down later this year.

That message was reinforced by Lord Wood, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, who reaffirmed the UK’s double-lock commitment to Gibraltar and said the treaty protected the Rock’s British sovereignty, interests and identity while creating opportunities for growth, investment and easier cross-border movement.

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to Gibraltar’s security and Gibraltar’s right to self-determination,” he told guests at the event.

“The future of Gibraltar will always be determined by its people through their freely and democratically expressed wishes.”

Lord Wood paid tribute to the Chief Minister and the Gibraltar Government for their determination, leadership and partnership throughout the process.

He said the agreement had required sustained work by the Foreign Office and the teams of all those involved, including during periods when prospects appeared bleak.

“There was nothing automatic about this extraordinary deal, and I pay tribute to everyone who’s been involved in delivering it,” Lord Wood added.

Lord Wood said Gibraltar approached the future from a strong position, highlighting its financial services, insurance, gaming and fintech industries, all of which are being showcased in different events this week in London, even as key sectors such as gaming face headwinds as a result a result of changes in UK taxation.

“The message is clear. Gibraltar is a modern, trusted and respected international finance centre,” he said.

FAREWELLS
Throughout this week, Mr Picardo’s message has been one of renewed confidence in Gibraltar’s prospects after years of uncertainty.

But that message is accompanied by acknowledgment of his forthcoming departure from frontline politics after four consecutive terms at the head of the Gibraltar Government.

On Monday night, Mr Picardo made clear that the treaty was the result of protracted, often complex and demanding negotiations.

That process had forged strong relationships between the ministers and officials who had shaped the agreement, human bonds that were plainly evident at the reception to anyone watching carefully.

Mr Picardo was speaking on the eve of a House of Lords debate scheduled for Tuesday and a vote in the European Parliament to follow in coming weeks.

“Ratification finally beckons,” he said.

“And importantly, we secured our treaty without giving up one inch of our sovereignty, our jurisdiction or control, because the negotiation was about people and prosperity.”

“And ours is a treaty built on real patriotic substance, not on empty patriotic rhetoric.”

“There’s a lot of the latter about and perhaps not enough of the former.”

He said the agreement was about building a future rather than rewriting the past but stressed that achieving it had been technically and politically difficult.

Mr Picardo thanked the Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Joseph Garcia, whom he described as his partner in government from the outset, alongside Attorney General Michael Llamas, who led Gibraltar’s negotiating team, and officials across Whitehall.

Over 15 years, the Chief Minister recalled how he had worked with seven UK Prime Ministers, 11 Foreign Secretaries and so many Europe ministers that he “literally given up counting”.

“Governments changed, parties changed, faces changed,” he said.

“Occasionally the faces changed faster than the stationery, but the consistent commitment to Gibraltar never changed.”

That commitment had enabled the negotiations to reach the right conclusion, he told guests who included ambassadors and representatives from Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, India, Malaysia, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Taipei, Turkey, Vietnam, Jersey and the Falklands.

Also present at the reception were the Governor, Lieutenant General Sir Ben Bathurst, UK Government officials, MPs and peers and former Governors of Gibraltar, alongside Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia, the Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain.

In his address, Mr Picardo singled out former Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, and James Cleverly, David Lammy and Stephen Doughty for their support as UK ministers over the past five years.

He also thanked the Governors alongside whom he had served and Foreign Office officials whose teams had helped secure support across UK ministries.

In particular he praised Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby, the former UK ambassador to the EU who was present in the room and whose contribution in various roles over more than a decade had been critical to Gibraltar after Brexit.

Mr Croisdale-Appleby had often been the only person able to engage the UK, Spain, the EU and Gibraltar after particularly bleak negotiating sessions, the Chief Minister said.

Mr Picardo also acknowledged members of both Houses of Parliament and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for ensuring Gibraltar had a voice at Westminster, highlighting the work of Sir Bob Neill and Amanda Martin.

He also extended thanks to those on the other side of the negotiations, including European Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares and their teams.

“We all stayed at the table and worked through very, very thorny issues, and in that way we proved together that a frontier can be a place where people meet, not just a place where they are kept apart,” he said.

“For my generation, those gates were the edge of the world,” he said.

Mr Picardo said that when the treaty was signed, his thoughts had been with the generation of Gibraltarians who refused to allow Gibraltar to be bullied by Spanish dictator General Franco.

He recalled too the thousands of Gibraltarians evacuated to London in 1940, who lived through the Blitz alongside Londoners.

“This city took us in when we had nowhere else to go,” he said.

“We have never forgotten that, and every Gibraltar Day in London is in part also a thank you.”

The treaty belonged within a wider story of people determining their future over many decades, Mr Picardo said.

“So if there’s anyone anywhere who still doubts that the small people on a small rock where you cannot grow anything can change the terms of their own history, tonight is your answer,” he said.

“It is the answer given by the evacuees who came home and rebuilt.”

“It is the answer given by the men and women who voted to remain British when the alternative was bleak retribution from a dictator who would not take no for an answer.

“And it is the answer of those who cross that frontier every morning from both sides and in either direction to build a future of shared prosperity to replace isolation and division.”

As he looked towards leaving office, Mr Picardo said he was saying goodbye to what he described as “the great privilege” of addressing the gathering as Chief Minister, telling guests someone else would stand before them next year.

“I know Gibraltar will be in the very best of hands, and I know that whichever party may be in power, that will always be true,” he said.

“Whoever may be the Chief Minister in the future, you will be there to support them and to support Gibraltar.”

“That is what makes you all so special to all of us.”