Open Your Eyes raises concern over talks on Rock’s post-Brexit future

Representatives from the group Open Your Eyes are scheduled to meet today with the Chief Minister for the second time in a week, having held an initial meeting last week to discuss its 14-point letter after the demonstration last month.

The group said the meeting was cordial and focused on popular concern about ongoing negotiations about Gibraltar’s post-Brexit relations with Spain and the EU.

“We stressed that the people have a right to know exactly what is being talked about, arranged and discussed,” the group said in a statement. “And that any future agreements should come in the form of international binding treaties with the guarantees of both the EU and the UK, after having consulted the people of Gibraltar via a referendum which would give the Government a fresh specific mandate on this question.”

The group said the commitments in the GSLP/Liberal manifesto on Brexit were “vague and loose” and did not set out firm red lines and parameters. Asked for comment, the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, said: “I said we have a mandate from the general election eight months ago to negotiate Brexit arrangements.”

“I also said that any proposal which might result in constitutional change would require a referendum and that they needed no such commitment from me as the constitution itself provides it can only be changed by a further referendum.”