Gibraltar on track for treaty implementation next month, CM says 

Gibraltar is on track to provisionally implement the treaty by the July 15 target date, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said on Thursday, as he rejected rumours the deadline had slipped and said the agreement will bring certainty for the gaming sector.

Mr Picardo answered questions on the treaty, the gaming sector and Gibraltar’s future during a half-hour fireside chat with Nicky Massias, from the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association, at the KPMG Gibraltar eSummit held at the Sunborn yacht hotel.

Mr Picardo said Gibraltar had been ready to implement the treaty on the first target date of April 10 and was on track for provisional implementation by the new deadline of July 15.

The Chief Minister said he wished to “scotch the rumour” that the treaty implementation would be delayed to September or October.

“We were ready for the 10th of April and were taking the necessary steps for the 10th of April,” he said.

“Every indication I get from Spanish colleagues and from colleagues in the United Kingdom and in Belgium suggests that we are on track for implementation in the first half of July.”

On Thursday afternoon, just prior to the fireside chat, Mr Picardo said that he had been at the frontier “looking at the last pieces of infrastructure that need to be removed”.

“That is quite a remarkable thing to say for those of you who know the history of Gibraltar and what the frontier means, has meant and no doubt will continue to mean in the metaphysical sense.”

He added that there needs to be infrastructure for vehicles and people to be able to move in an unimpeded fashion, either by immigration formalities or by traffic difficulties.

He pointed to tight bends which slow traffic down by the frontier which could cause tailbacks.

“There's a number of tight bends that you come across when you're doing the Gibraltar/La Línea crossing that you might not realise could create a tailback because the immigration control stops that from ever being a tailback as a result of a tight bend,” he said.

“We're doing a lot of work to deliver that.”

Further work includes ensuring that Gibraltar’s systems are agile enough for the gaming industry.

This includes enabling 250 people to move to the area, which requires processing 50 new residency applications in Gibraltar.

He said 200 people do not meet the criteria for local residency and “in any event will not be able to afford to live in Gibraltar.”

“They're going to live in Spain, we need to process 250 new employees in Gibraltar, we need to process 50 new residence applications and Spain needs to process 200 new residence applications from people from outside the EU, typically UK, US, Indian nationals who are coming to work in the industry but are going to live in Spain and are going to demonstrate to the Schengen authorities that they can sustain themselves in the Schengen area because of employment outside of the Schengen area which is in Gibraltar.”

He said the administrative agility to provide this is “as important as the delivery of the removal of the physical barriers on the ground”.

Mr Picardo said Gibraltar’s future is “beyond the frontier” and described the agreement as “an alchemist’s charter for businesses”.

He said the treaty has protected the existing gaming and financial services industries and the ability “to get people in and out of the territory to service your customers”.

Gibraltar has created what Mr Picardo calls three markets, including the single market with the UK in services; the goods market between Gibraltar traders and European customers; and “marketing fluidity of people”, meaning the right of fluidity from one territory to another which will be unimpeded.

“I think that is as magic a formula we can have for the future economic success of Gibraltar,” he said.

Pointing to the gaming industry, Mr Picardo said it is a key driver for economic growth and Gibraltar has become the “Silicon Valley” for this sector, adding that successive governments and the wider community recognised its importance.

Mr Picardo said there are strong links between Gibraltar and Malta, which also has a gaming industry, but that these links need to flourish.

“There is the opportunity for Malta-Gibraltar flights,” he said.

“I don't know whether there is the need for a daily Malta-Gibraltar but there's probably a value in a weekly or a bi-weekly Malta-Gibraltar.”

“There's probably more of a market for a daily or double-daily Madrid-Gibraltar, Barcelona-Gibraltar, Paris-Gibraltar, maybe there's a double-weekly Geneva-Gibraltar.”

“All of those things are now unlocked by the treaty in a way that they have not been at any time since Europe opened its skies up.”

“I'm very much looking forward to that because I think it starts to put the flesh on the bones of what this joint prosperity could be.”