Rajoy says he is working towards a 'Spanish Gibraltar'

Mariano Rajoy

JAÉN / Andújar (Agencies) At a party meeting this weekend, Premier Mariano Rajoy was interrupted during his speech by a member shouting out "¡Gibraltar español!" ('Spanish Gibraltar!'), whom he answered with "We're onto it. We're onto it." The interruption happened as he was enumerating the autonomous regions of Spain, and Ceuta and Melilla (two Spanish enclaves in North Africa that enjoy the status of provinces). Rajoy had a meeting in London recently with his British counterpart, David Cameron, who made it clear that the UK would never enter negotiations without the approval of the people of Gibraltar (which is extremely unlikely, at least for now). However, Rajoy's Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García-Margallo, continues to call for the renewal "as soon as possible" of the bilateral talks (i.e. Spain and Britain) known as the Brussels Process, which was suspended in 2002. (See also Cameron refuses to talk about sovereignty with Rajoy, and Gibraltar, a 'marginal' item at Rajoy-Cameron meeting) (Prospero note: please do not fear any change soon, these and many other talks have been going on for centuries, so the status quo is likely to remain so for a long while yet.)