Government aims to reply to all treaty-related emails by September 1

The Government of Gibraltar has announced that it will not be able to respond to public questions regarding the UK-EU agreement by July 25 as initially planned, due to the high volume of enquiries and ongoing treaty discussions with the EU.

More than 1,000 questions have been submitted by the public since the announcement of the engagement process. The Government has stated that responses will be issued steadily over the coming weeks, with the aim of replying to all emails by September 1.

The Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, said: “I’m grateful to all those who have taken the time to put their questions to us in this proper format and I’m sorry that we have not been able to get back to you in the time that we would have liked to.”

“However, I think it’s important that everyone who has written to us receives a meaningful reply and that’s why I want to make sure that we take the extra time that we need to do so.”

Mr Picardo added: “The work on finalising negotiation of the treaty text is ongoing and I am very happy to be able to report that the past few weeks have seen a lot of activity in this respect, with a lot of text being circulated and considered in a very positive and constructive spirit which bodes well for the timing of the text being published sooner rather than later.”

“All of this has contributed to not being able to have the bandwidth to answer the over one thousand questions I am advised have been received and the publication of an FAQ factsheet or booklet based on these.”