Gibraltar accepts expanding Forum to include Campo

(Photo: NASA)

Forum to lose 'tripartite' aspect

GIBRALTAR (Agencies) While David Lidington, UK Secretary of State for Europe, was in Madrid confirming what he had announced early last year, that sovereignty of Gibraltar was not under discussion and would never be without the approval of the people of the Rock, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo was saying that his government had no problem including the Campo de Gibraltar in the Forum, as long as Gibraltar continued to join the talks with its own delegation, separate from that of the UK. This, at any rate, was what a spokesperson for Picardo said in response to a proposal from the new PP government in Madrid, which announced the end of the 'tripartite' talks, also called Foro de Diálogo (Forum of Dialogue). Nonetheless, the talks are now open to a fourth member, named as 'Spanish regional authorities' without specifying that it meant the Campo de Gibraltar area. It should be added that, having been created in 2004 to deal with local cooperation matters, the Forum has been in suspense since 2010, when then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trinidad Jiménez, put it aside as the then Chief Minister Peter Caruana insisted on including the subject of sovereignty, something Madrid insists is only debatable between London and Madrid.

New Spanish minister: 'Objective is to reopen sovereignty talks'

GIBRALTAR/SPAIN/UK (Agencies) While the Tripartite Forum holds a meeting at political level in Madrid today, Spain's new Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trinidad Jiménez (photo), announced in parliament that her objective is to "generate enough confidence in order to renew bilateral negotiations on the sovereignty of Gibraltar." These, she said at the parliamentary 'control session', are only between Spain and the UK. The minister's response came after the president of the PP in Andalucía and Senator Javier Arenas had requested her to "abandon a weak policy of 'subservience' to Gibraltar" and to end the Tripartite Forum, which has benefitted neither Spain nor the Campo." Among other things in response to Arenas, Jiménez asked him "What opinion of the PP could David Cameron have if he heard you, as he's evidently your model and reference?" in reference to the head of the PP, Mariano Rajoy's recent praising the UK's cost cutting efforts.>