Sturgeon drops in at Gibraltar House

The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia yesterday received the First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon at Gibraltar House in London.

Miss Sturgeon was accompanied by a technical delegation and the Gibraltar team also included the Attorney General Michael Llamas and UK representative Dominique Searle.

The two Governments exchanged views on the developing political situation following the referendum of 23 June, where the UK as a whole voted to leave the EU but where both Scotland and Gibraltar voted to remain.

It was agreed that technical teams would continue their work to explore further the potential commonality of interests between Scotland and Gibraltar.

All the options would need to be explored in that process, the Gibraltar Government said in a statement.

The important point was made that even today different British territories have varying degrees of relationship with the European Union.

The meeting with Miss Sturgeon yesterday followed a hectic day of meetings in Brussels on Tuesday. The programme included nine meetings with the European Commission, the European Parliament and members of the Council.

This included a meeting with the Commissioner responsible for customs and taxation Pierre Moscovici.

In addition to this, the Chief Minister was able to put across the position of Gibraltar to the leaders of the two largest political groups in the European Parliament.

Some of these meetings were pre-planned from before the referendum and were a continuation of Government business, whereas a number of other meetings were arranged to take advantage of Mr Picardo's and Dr Garcia's time in Brussels.