Parliament approves select committee on Brexit

The establishment of a new Select Committee to deal with the Brexit issue – its formal name a Select Committee on the European Union - has been given the green light in Parliament.

The Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, had brought a motion before the House outlining the previously declared intention of the Government and the Opposition to cooperate in determining both the impact on Gibraltar of a potential withdrawal from the EU and Gibraltar’s future relationship with it.

The Select Committee is the formal mechanism by which the cooperation between the two is to be taken forward.

Mr Picardo set out the form that the Select Committee should take including its role, composition and the regularity of its meetings.

The composition of the Select Committee, Mr Picardo explained, will reflect the composition of Parliament with four Members nominated by the Chief Minister, two Members nominated by the Leader of the Opposition, Daniel Feetham, and the Independent Member of Parliament, Marlene Hassan Nahon.

He said the Committee will meet regularly and although in private information will subsequently be disseminated to the public as appropriate.

GSD Trevor Hammond said the Opposition fully endorsed elements of the motion but noted that more than 100 days had passed since the referendum result.

“We have lost one third of the time that would have been available to us in order to deal with this issue,” he told the House.

Mr Feetham added: “The community will not find the Opposition wanting in its participation in relation to the Select Committee to whatever degree the Chief Minister wants us to participate.”

Mrs Hassan Nahon commended the Government in setting up the Committee “at this delicate time”.

The motion was unanimously approved.