Treaty ‘a vaccine’ to age-old border problems, CM tells Barcelona conference ahead of treaty briefings in London and Madrid

The UK/EU treaty on Gibraltar will take centre stage this week as Chief Minister Fabian Picardo heads first to London and later Madrid for public briefings on the agreement.

On Monday, Mr Picardo is due to brief MPs on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee during a session in which he will be joined by Michael Llamas, the Attorney General; Stephen Doughty, the UK Minister Europe, North America and the Overseas Territories; and Hazel Cameron, Director for EU and Gibraltar at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Later in the week on Thursday, Mr Picardo will be in Madrid for a breakfast briefing organised by the Forum Europa, a high-profile platform that hosts regular events with leading national and European political figures.

He will be presented at the event by Xabier Fortes, from Spanish broadcaster RTVE’s flagship ‘La noche en 24 horas’ current affairs programme.

Separately, Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, will be in Algeciras on Thursday morning to brief the Campo Chamber of Commerce on the treaty and the latest developments ahead of provisional implementation planned for July 15.

Mr Picardo will arrive in London fresh from the Global Progressive Mobilisation conference in Barcelona, which he attended alongside Health Minister Gemma Arias Vasquez at the invitation of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

The event brought together progressive political leaders, policymakers, activists and thinkers from around the globe and was billed at a time of “critical turmoil” to offer views and experience to provide “a necessary alternative to conservative and far-right forces”.

This year’s conference featured a high-level line-up of speakers including Mr Sánchez; Mr Albares; former Spanish Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero; Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil; António Costa, President of the European Council; David Lammy, UK Deputy Prime Minister; and Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, among many others.

As part of the programme, Mr Picardo was invited to speak in a panel discussion on ‘Confronting the Cost-of-Living Crisis’, where he shared Gibraltar’s perspective on the challenges facing working people and families and on the importance of progressive governments responding in a practical and compassionate way to the pressures created by rising living costs.

He reflected on the 2016 Brexit referendum and the challenge it had created for Gibraltar at a time of global flux, and how this challenge had been navigated over the past decade to achieve an agreement that create a framework for a new relationship with Spain and the EU, against the backdrop of the UK resetting its own relations with the bloc.

The 2016 referendum, Mr Picardo told the conference, created an opportunity to find “a vaccine” for the problems caused not only by Brexit but the by “the border-light” that communities on either side had for years become accustomed to living with.

It was an opportunity to go “back to the future” and return relations to a time before Franco turned that border into a barrier, he said.

Mr Picardo and Mrs Arias Vasquez also attended the official dinner on Friday hosted by Mr Sanchez.

“I am very grateful to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for inviting Gemma and I to attend the Global Progressive Mobilisation in Barcelona and to the official dinner hosted by him alongside it,” Mr Picardo said.

“It was a real pleasure to be able to take part in such an important panel discussion on the cost-of-living crisis, which continues to affect working people and families across the world.”

“I took the opportunity to explain Gibraltar’s own approach to supporting our community through difficult globally economically uncertain times.”

“It is great to be able to catch up with good friends and to have the opportunity to continue strengthening the ties of friendship and dialogue with colleagues from across Europe and beyond, which remain so important in the modern political and international context.”