The Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, chaired two working meetings this Monday morning at the Ministry's headquarters regarding the progress of negotiations concerning Gibraltar. Municipal and regional authorities attended the first meeting, and social and economic agents from the region attended the second. These meetings were held, according to Minister Albares, “in a spirit of institutional loyalty and transparency” and with the aim of informing them of the progress of the agreement and “listening to their demands and comments”.
Regarding the content of the meetings, the minister reported on the progress made following the high-level meeting held on 12 April in Brussels with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, and the head of British diplomacy, David Cameron. At this meeting, the first in this format, general policy lines were agreed, including concerning the airport, goods and mobility.
Albares also provided information on issues of interest such as removing the border fence, the use of the airport, the free movement of people and goods, the rights of workers in the Campo area and the safeguarding of Spain's position on sovereignty.
According to Minister Albares, this agreement seeks to create “an area of shared prosperity” and “open a new stage of coexistence between the Campo de Gibraltar and Gibraltar after so many years”. He added that the goal is that these “close economic, commercial and personal relations” which in the region are “normal de facto” are also “normal de jure, and that incidents and distrust are eliminated”.
In both meetings it was explained that the negotiations carried out by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs are highly complex, as they include factors also affecting other departments, such as Interior, Defence and Finance, among others.
Furthermore, it was explained that the priority during negotiations has been “the welfare of the 300,000 Andalusians in the Campo de Gibraltar” and of the “thousands of workers” who cross the border fence every day to work, their rights, and those of the families in Campo.
Attendance at the meetings
The first meeting with mayors and regional authorities took place at the Ministry's headquarters (Plaza Marqués de Salamanca) at 10:00 am. This is the third meeting that Minister Albares has held with municipal authorities in this format in the last two and a half years. The mayors of La Línea, José Juan Franco Rodríguez; Algeciras, José Ignacio Landaluce; San Roque, Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix; Castellar de la Frontera, Adrián Vaca Carrillo; Jimena de la Frontera, Francisco J. Gómez Pérez; Los Barrios, Miguel Fermín Alconchel; San Martín del Tesorillo, Jesús Fernández Rey; the deputy mayor of Tarifa, Ignacio Trujillo Jaén; the president of the Association of Municipalities of Campo de Gibraltar, Susana Pérez Custodio; the subdelegate of the Government in Cádiz, Blanca del Pilar Flores Cueto; the Coordinator of the General State Administration in Campo de Gibraltar, Esperanza Pérez; the delegate of the Regional Government of Andalusia in Campo de Gibraltar, Francisco Javier Rodríguez Ros; the Minister for the Presidency of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Antonio Sanz, and the President of the Provincial Council of Cádiz, Almudena Martínez del Junco, attended.
The second meeting, with civil society representatives, took place at 12.30 at the same venue. The president of the Chamber of Commerce of Campo de Gibraltar, Carlos Fenoy; the honorary president of the Association of Large Industrialists of Campo de Gibraltar, Antonio Moreno; the secretary-general of the Confederation of Employers of Cádiz; the representative of the Cross-Border Group of Campo de Gibraltar, Juan Carmona; the secretary-general of CCOO for the region, Manuel Triano; the president of the Algeciras Bay PortáAuthority, Gerardo Landaluce; the Vice Chancellor of the Algeciras Bay Campus of the University of Cádiz; the spokesman of Verdemar Ecologists in Action, Antonio Muñoz; the president of the Association for People with Special Socio-Educational Needs (ASANSULL), María Luisa Escribano, and the Hogar Betania representative in La Línea all participated in the meeting.
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