2 Brief background to the dispute
Historic
background
6. Gibraltar has been under British
sovereignty for over 300 years. It was captured by the UK in 1704
and was formally ceded by Spain in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
However, Spain has long disputed the UK's sovereignty over Gibraltar,
arguing that the Rock should be returned as part of long-overdue
decolonisation, and that the isthmus (land connecting the Rock
to the mainland) had never been formally ceded, nor had any of
the waters surrounding Gibraltar. At various times since the Second
World War, Spain has imposed significant punitive measures on
the Territory. These include closing the border between Gibraltar
and Spain completely between 1969 and 1982, under General Franco.
7. Over the last 50 years,Gibraltar
developed into one of the most autonomous of the UK's fourteen
Overseas Territories. It adopted its first constitution in 1966,
which allowed for its own legislature and government, and updated
it in 2006 to transfer allgovernance responsibilities to the Government
of Gibraltar, apart from foreign affairs, defence, and internal
security. Our predecessor Committees have produced a number of
reports with detailed historical background of Gibraltar and of
the various dialogue initiatives that have taken place since the
1970s.[4]
1984-1997 BRUSSELS PROCESS
8. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Spain
was seeking to become a member of the European Community,to which
the UK (and, by extension, Gibraltar)[5]
already belonged.As part of preparations for this, Spain and the
UK signed the Brussels Agreement in 1984. This bilateral agreement
on Gibraltar acted as a precursor to normal relations between
members of the EC, and also provided for discussions between the
UK and Spain, on topics includingsovereignty. These talks came
to be known as the Brussels Process and resulted in a series of
meetings throughout the 1980s and 1990s, though without a great
deal of progress. Spain made two formal proposals during the talks
for integrating Gibraltar into Spain, the second of which was
put forwardin 1997 by Spanish Foreign Minister Abel Matutes of
the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), who offered a "fresh
attempt" to resolve the issue, including by offering an indefinite
transitional period of joint sovereignty. Although the UK did
not formally reject the proposal, the talks lapsed and Gibraltar
endured a further period of border and maritime difficulties.
2001- 2002 RENEWED BRUSSELS PROCESS:
JOINT SOVEREIGNTY TALKS
9. In 2001, the Rt HonJack Straw MP,
then Foreign Secretary, announced that the UK and Spain were once
again holding talks on Gibraltar. It was later confirmed that
these talks included proposals for joint sovereignty over Gibraltar.
The proposals were strongly resisted by Gibraltar, which had not
taken part in the dialogue. In 2002 Gibraltar held a referendum
asking Gibraltarians whether they would agree to shared Spanish
and British sovereignty. The turnout was 87.9 per cent and nearly
99 per cent of those voting voted "no".The talks collapsed
soon afterwards. Our predecessor Committee strongly opposed the
talks and heavily criticised the Government both for the proposal
and the less than transparent way in which it had proceeded. It
said that "there was no prospect whatsoever that any agreement
on the future of Gibraltar which included joint sovereignty could
be made acceptable to the people of Gibraltar, and […] the
outcome is likely to be the worst of all worlds-the dashing of
raised expectations in Spain, and a complete loss of trust in
the British Government by the people of Gibraltar".[6]
2004-2009 TRILATERAL FORUM AND CORDOBA
AGREEMENTS
10. Following the collapse of the joint
sovereignty proposal in 2002, in October 2004 Spain and the UK
agreed to consult further on a new forum with an open agenda in
which Gibraltar would have a voice. This resulted in a series
of trilateral ministerial meetings, the first of which took place
in Cordoba in 2006. That meeting resulted in the Cordoba Agreement,
which addressed a number of long-standing issues, including the
removal of air restrictions against Gibraltar airport; Spanish
recognition of Gibraltarian dialling codes; and improved pedestrian
and traffic flows at the border. It also contained an agreement
on the payment of pensions to Spanish citizens who had been affected
when the border between Spain and Gibraltar was closed by the
General Franco government in 1969. Under EU rules, the Gibraltarian
government had continued liabilities to these citizens though
they had not been able to contribute to the pension scheme. As
part of the Cordoba agreement, the UK took on liability for the
pensions continued payment at agreed rates, ending a controversial
and bitter dispute.[7]The
FCO estimated in 2008 that the additional costs to be borne by
the UK as a result of this agreement were £73 million, which
was in addition to the ongoing costs of £49 million in future
pensions payments which would have been made anyway.[8]
Our predecessor committee considered that, although costly, this
agreement was worthwhile as it ended challenges to Gibraltar's
pension system and removed other potential liabilities for the
UK.[9]
11. In subsequent trilateral meetings
the agenda was extended still further, and the UK Government and
Government of Gibraltar both commented favourably to our predecessor
committee in 2008 on the forum and the Cordoba agreement.[10]During
this period, it appears that sovereignty discussions were effectively
off the table, as the UK Government had by then provided Gibraltar
with a guarantee that not only would it never enter into arrangements
under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty
of another state against their wishes (as promised in the 1966
constitution preamble), but the UK would not even enter into a
process of sovereignty negotiations with which Gibraltar was not
content. This guarantee is known in Gibraltar as the 'double-lock'.
Regardless of the UK's refusal to discuss sovereignty, relations
between the UK, Gibraltar and Spain improved to such an extent
during this period of dialogue that in 2009 the then Foreign Minister
Miguel Angel Moratinos, from the Socialist Party (PSOE),made the
first visit to Gibraltar by a Spanish foreign minister in over
300 years.
12. The difficulties the current
Government faces are in part a legacy of regrettable decisions
made in 2001-02 to allow for joint sovereignty discussions, which
raised expectations on the Spanish side. Since 2004, the Government
has sought to correct this by a consistent message that no discussions
will take place without the consent of the people of Gibraltar.
This is the correct approach, and should be consistently re-affirmed.
The 'double lock' has provided Gibraltar with security following
a difficult period; this guarantee of self-determination should
never be abandoned again.
4 See, for example, Foreign Affairs Committee, Fourth
Report of Session 1998-99, Gibraltar, HC 413; and Foreign
Affairs Committee, Eleventh Report of Session 2001-02, Gibraltar,
HC 973 Back
5
Article 355(3) (ex Article 299(4)) applies the treaty to "the
European territories for whose external relations a Member State
is responsible", a provision which in practice only applies
to Gibraltar. Back
6
Foreign Affairs Committee, Eleventh Report of Session 2001-02,
Gibraltar, HC 973, para 31 Back
7
See Foreign Affairs Committee, Eleventh Report of Session 2001-02,
Gibraltar, HC 973 paras 58-87 of 2002; and Foreign Affairs
Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2007-08, Overseas Territories,
HC 147-I paras 393-400, on the pensions 'scam' Back
8
Foreign Affairs Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2007-08,
Overseas Territories, HC 147-I, para 399 Back
9
Foreign Affairs Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2007-08,
Overseas Territories, HC 147-I, para 414 Back
10
Foreign Affairs Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2007-08,
Overseas Territories, HC 147-I, para 387-391 Back
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