The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, will appear next Friday in Congress to report on the latest diplomatic crises and to report on the progress in the negotiations on Gibraltar. His parliamentary intervention coincides with a campaign by the Popular Party, which insists on supporting the agreement “but not just any agreement”, in which it questions the format of the negotiations, the negative repercussions of the future Treaty and the Government’s budgetary measures. central, in the Campo de Gibraltar, after Brexit.
Albares’ appearance at the Carrera de San Jerónimo palace occurred at his own request, although several parliamentary groups have also requested it. On the roadmap, there are other issues as burning as the diplomatic tension between Spain, Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico. Along with the course of negotiations between Great Britain and the European Union on Gibraltar, Albares will also have to respond to issues such as migratory pressure and the agreements, in this regard, with Morocco or Mauritania.
After getting the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to begin informing the Junta de Andalucía and the mayors of the area about the general framework of the negotiations with the United Kingdom, the advisor to the Presidency of the Junta de Andalucía, Antonio Sanz, criticized this Monday at ‘New Economy Forum. Tribuna Andalucía’, held in Malaga, that Spain negotiates ‘in three’, with the United Kingdom and with Gibraltar, the situation of the Rock, since it considers that it means giving Gibraltar “the status of a sovereign State.”
On the other hand, today, Tuesday, predictably, the Board of Spokespersons of the Algeciras City Council will examine the document promoted by the Popular Party so that all municipal groups – including Vox and the PSOE – demand the presence of representatives of the region, “with voice but no vote” in the Treaty negotiations, which at this point in the process would be extremely complex from a diplomatic point of view. It does not seem likely that the Municipal Socialist Group of Rocío Arrabal will join this initiative.
Landaluce meeting with AESBA representatives
Yesterday, the mayor of Algeciras, José Ignacio Landaluce, of the PP and president of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs commission, made visible the uncertainty prevailing among the city’s port companies regarding the outcome of the Treaty. In fact, the first mayor held a working meeting with the Association of Businesses of the Bay of Algeciras (AESBA), chaired by José Antonio Fernández Viñas, where they conveyed their concern and uncertainty on behalf of the entire business community of the Port of Algeciras. about the negotiations and their consequences in the region, currently held by the government of Spain and the EU with the United Kingdom, about the future of Gibraltar.
Also present at the meeting were the subdelegate of the Junta de Andalucía in the region, Javier Ros; the president of the Commonwealth of Municipalities of Campo de Gibraltar, Susana Pérez; the delegate of Economic Development and Employment, Álvaro Márquez, as well as José Manuel Tejedor, first vice president; Fernando Giorgi, first vice president, and Manolo Piedra, member.
As is known, AESBA is an entity recognized as an interlocutor by the Bahía de Algeciras Port Authority, Algeciras Maritime Captaincy, County Council, CEC, AGI, and different sectoral and intersectoral business organizations from various fields that defends the interests of the most of 150 partners and companies that form it, and which represents 30,000 workers and families from the entire region, that is, 10% of the population.
For his part, the mayor has assessed the meeting as very necessary and beneficial, stating that “everything that has to do with the negotiations regarding the future of Gibtaltar, as well as the rules of the game that will operate in the future between both parties , are being carried out with too much obscurantism, even opacity, which is undoubtedly generating uncertainty and concern in all sectors of society, and even more so when we talk about employment, the future and our families and children.
In this sense, the first mayor has joined the claim of the AESBA collective, that the government of Spain summon, meet and listen to all the social, economic, and also environmental sectors of the region involved in this negotiation process , as agreed in the last meeting in Algeciras with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares.
“These meetings have not materialized, and doubts and concerns are arising in this part since both the Minister and the negotiating team must know, attend to and take into account in the negotiating process the opinion, criteria and opinion of this sector”, they emphasize from the Algeciras City Council.
Furthermore, Landaluce highlighted that “we are talking about more than 30,000 people who make a living from maritime port activity, that is, 10% of the population, and we cannot allow the future of our land to be played with, since an evil agreement can very negatively affect our port, and our immediate future. The government must attend to and protect, of course, cross-border workers, and also the port business sector, and therefore the government must have the necessary information to avoid taking false steps in a process in which we are risking the future.”
Finally, AESBA has thanked this meeting and has highlighted its excellent working relationship with the City Council. Likewise, they have asked the government to launch meetings by sectors that never took place so that there is a dialogue with the port business community, and to be able to leave behind the uncertainty and lack of information of the negotiation process, and that can affect very negatively to the companies of the region, those of the rock benefiting.
Antonio Sanz at the Forum Europa
The Minister of the Presidency, Interior, Social Dialogue and Administrative Simplification, Antonio Sanz, in response to the Government’s announcement that this Tuesday it will approve for the third consecutive year an agreement for the eight localities of Campo de Gibraltar, in the province of Cádiz, equipped with 7.3 million euros, has stated that “Campo de Gibraltar cannot continue to be deceived”, stating that of the latest Government Plan for the region “nothing has been executed.” The socialists also reproach the Andalusian Government that none of the hundred measures against Brexit that Elías Bendodo announced at the time have materialized in practice.
In the question period after his speech this Monday at the Forum Europa Tribuna de Andalucía in Malaga, Sanz said that with respect to special plans for the Campo de Gibraltar he has already seen “everything and too much”, and the latest one announced by the Government “nothing has been executed.” Thus, he has pointed out that the Board, regarding the negotiations for the situation of Gibraltar in the European Union “wants the best agreement, because the opportunity that Campo del Gibraltar has to take off will never be presented again if a bad situation is closed.” agreement”.
«The Foreign Minister speaks of a shared prosperity agreement, and what he is doing is an agreement of shared inequality, because until we balance, among other things, fiscally, the incentives that Gibraltar has to be able to establish companies, or industries, there, or whatever, to invest, and we have such an abysmal difference, among other things, in the Corporate Tax, it is impossible for there to be shared prosperity,” said Sanz.
“It is impossible for there to be shared prosperity if there is no real commitment to the Campo de Gibraltar, but the impression it gives is that there is a great rush to sign an agreement, and what the Board says is that it wants an agreement, but not just any agreement.” .
In Sanz’s opinion, “it is not about looking for the photo to pass on history like the one who made the Gate disappear, it is about passing on history by offering the best agreement so that people can eat in the Campo de Gibraltar and have a future.” . That’s the difference. Some are in a hurry for the photo and others think that what it is about is working so that people eat.
However, Sanz’s criticism even extends to the format of the negotiations between the European Union and Great Britain, because “it is negotiated in three, which is granting the status of sovereign state to Gibraltar and Spain should never have accepted.”
In that sense, he has criticized that the Foreign Minister “has made not only the Board, but also the town councils, disappear from the negotiation.” “We do not want to intervene in the negotiation, we want to be during the preparation of the negotiations to know what is being negotiated,” he concluded. As is known, on October 9, José Manuel Albares has once again summoned the mayors of the region, the president of the Commonwealth of Municipalities of Campo de Gibraltar and Antonio Sanz himself to inform them about the course of the conversations that , on the other hand, do not come to fruition.
