Time for international change

By Robert Vasquez

The 19th May is advocated widely as a possible date a Gibexit treaty over Gibraltar will be announced, but there is no certainty about that.

The treaty will be between the UK and the EU.

Wider arrangements with the EU will include defence and security matters, which for Gibraltar are exclusively in the constitutional powers of the Governor, and so the UK. Accordingly, those matters are not in the hands of our elected Ministers or Government.

If announced then, or before or after that date, it will likely fall within the wider package governing UK-EU relations into the future that is being negotiated.

The hope seems to be that Spanish parliamentary, political and public objection will be diminished by wider beneficial considerations dealt within the broader arrangements that are set to be agreed between the UK and the EU. Those will capture attention in the main.

There seems now to be a new focus on defence and security, which in the past has not been within the province of the EU.

The GSLP-Liberal Government under Fabian Picardo advocates its desire to conclude a “safe, secure and beneficial” treaty for Gibraltar.

The position is that the sole assessors of what is “safe, secure and beneficial” are those negotiating, as information about the negotiations is not available publicly.

They are, politically, the leaders of the current GSLP-Liberal Government, namely Fabian Picardo and Joseph Garcia. They are empowered only on those matters within the constitutional powers of Gibraltar’s elected Government, which does not include defence and security.

They both know where Gibraltar and the UK stand in the negotiation. Mr Picardo was in Madrid on Wednesday and Thursday of last week to continue discussions. Mr Garcia attended virtually online.

Those talks engage Gibraltar and Spain, but reports indicate that Stephen Doughty, UK Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories, was in attendance. What remains unknown is whether the talks involved EU representatives or were bilateral.

Administratively, the Attorney General Michael Llamas and the Director of Gibraltar House in Brussels Daniel D’Amato are with them and so know.

The latter two do not carry political responsibility for a Gibexit ‘deal’, however. They are public officers and servants without political input or decision-making power.

The political responsibility, whatever the outcome may be, lies with Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Garcia, and the GSLP-Liberal Government that they lead, to the extent consulted.

It is a responsibility they carry whether there is a ‘deal’, or a “non-negotiated outcome”, which is code for ‘no deal’.

Recently the indications from both the EU and Spain are that they will clinch a Gibexit treaty, although the UK remains silent.

The main individuals engaged, Maros Sefcovic for the EU and Jose Maria Albares for Spain, are positive in their pronouncements last week.

Mr Sefcovic has expressed the view publicly that the UK and the EU will agree a Gibexit treaty.
Mr Albares has spoken of “substantive progress”.

What is interesting, however, is that both the EU and the UK now talk of wider discussions with the UK on defence and security and other matters of mutual interest.

Defence and security have not been in the remit of the EU, until now. It seems a practical reaction to the stance of the USA under President Donald Trump, which points to a US military withdrawal from Europe.

The UK and the EU are agreeing a new defence and security pact, which will bring Gibraltar into the picture inevitably.

An overall pact with the EU is a central plank of the UK’s new Labour Government.

Gibraltar is core to matters of European defence and security but controlled by the UK.

Those two issues in Gibraltar are constitutionally in the exclusive remit of the UK, so the Gibraltar Government contingent in the Gibexit talk have reduced (or no) pull on those fronts.

Spain also should not endanger Europe-wide defence and security over its claim to the sovereignty of Gibraltar.

Agreement between the UK and the EU is necessary to allow defence and security to be as strong as possible in the face of the uncertainty caused by Russia and other events internationally, most recently in India and Pakistan and the Middle East.

When any announcement is made, be it a Gibexit ‘deal’ or ‘no deal’, the public reaction must be calm.

Careful thought must be given to whatever the reality is. Government and administration must be allowed to function for the benefit of all.

Whatever the Gibexit outcome, we must believe in the national identity that we so much rightly boast of.

We must be confident of our Constitution and self-governance. They will all see us through as a distinct and proud people.

There is one hesitation, however.

The last outcome that Gibraltar should want to see is a UK-EU defence and security pact in which Gibraltar’s military facilities are included, in exercise of the UK’s constitutional power over those matters, but that ‘no deal’ governing Gibraltar’s overall ongoing relationship with the EU comes to fruition.

Careful thought is needed to ensure what will be the best outcome of the Gibexit negotiation for Gibraltar.

Our politicians must leave emotions out of the difficult decisions needed to ensure the continuation of a British Gibraltar.

Our British sovereignty rests on our belief and confidence in it, together with the constitutional guarantees given by the UK, by our history with the UK, and our wishes as a people which is recognised widely internationally.

Robert Vasquez, KC, is a retired barrister and political commentator. He stood as an independent candidate at the last general election on a platform of democratic reform.