Goodwill from UK Govt and widespread support in Parliament for Gibraltar

This year I would like to start by congratulating my friend and colleague Sir Joe Bossano following the grant to him of a very well-deserved and long-overdue honour. It is an excellent start to the year!

Every time a New Year opens we look forward in eager anticipation to the blessings that it will bring. We also know that we will continue to face many of the same challenges carried over from the year before.

And as we continue to deal with these existing issues, we know that we will also have to work through new ones in the twelve months to come. This combination of existing and new challenges happens every year.

Paramount among the existing challenges, as you know, is the continuation of the work that we must undertake as Gibraltar prepares to leave the European Union together with the United Kingdom.

Every time a New Year opens we look forward in eager anticipation to the blessings that it will bring. We also know that we will continue to face many of the same challenges carried over from the year before.

And as we continue to deal with these existing issues, we know that we will also have to work through new ones in the twelve months to come. This combination of existing and new challenges happens every year.

Paramount among the existing challenges, as you know, is the continuation of the work that we must undertake as Gibraltar prepares to leave the European Union together with the United Kingdom.

BREXIT: EVERYTHING POSSIBLE DONE

You can rest assured that your Government will do everything humanly possible to ensure that the position of Gibraltar is not forgotten going forward. Indeed, you will see from the Brexit-related political activity that we have conducted up to this time that it is already impossible to have done more.

This is reflected in the transformation of the work of my office since the 2016 referendum first as the Ministry for Europe and later also as the Ministry for EU Exit. Work related to our departure from the EU now takes up the bulk of my time. There are countless organisations churning out information on the subject and this needs to be monitored and checked. A 500 page report might well contain two or three lines which could be vitally important to Gibraltar. I suppose that my own training as a researcher and historian is being put to good use!

Gibraltar can be proud of the Brexit team that the Chief Minister and I have put together.

The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo continues to provide the determined leadership and the overall political vision to guide us through. The Attorney General Michael Llamas, with his sharp legal mind, very ably heads the officials who deal with this subject practically on a daily basis. These are based here in Gibraltar, with constructive support from the offices in London and of course in Brussels. I should add that the representation in Brussels has already proved to be a worthwhile investment for the future whether or not we are in the European Union. There are other small territories outside the EU who maintain an office in Brussels. Whatever happens going forward, the EU will continue to exist and we will need to maintain some kind of relationship with it.

The additional Brexit-related work has also resulted in additional Ministerial and official meetings outside Gibraltar. We hold regular strategy talks with the UK Government as well as formal meetings of the Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) for Gibraltar. 2018 will be no different. There is now an additional layer of work following the creation of a number of sub-committees of the JMC. These presently cover Financial Services, On-line Gaming, the Environment, the Border, Transport, as well as Trade and Investment.

It is clear during the course of these discussions that there is considerable good-will for Gibraltar across the UK Government and that we enjoy widespread cross-party support across the UK Parliament. This has not happened of its own accord. We have worked hard as parties and as a Government to achieve this through incessant political lobbying of the friends and allies that we found on our election in 2011 and by adding considerably to their number since then.

We have therefore made new friends and built new alliances. This has materialised without alienating our traditional body of support so that now UK parties, which have little in common with each other, are nonetheless agreed on the need to protect Gibraltar. This is a considerable achievement and we are grateful for this support.

We hope to build on that consensus throughout 2018 in order to ensure that our views and concerns continue to reach the people who matter inside and outside Whitehall.

OPPOSITION BREXIT BRIEFINGS: FULL TRANSPARENCY

Locally, we have held one official meeting of the Select Committee on Brexit and delivered three separate briefings to the Opposition. These have involved full transparency on everything that has been happening behind the scenes, some of which is not publicly known, and for that reason such information must be regarded as confidential. The three briefings to date have been lengthy and detailed. They have proved very useful information exchanges which have allowed the opportunity for Opposition Members to ask questions and express their views about the conduct of any particular area of Brexit.

Therefore the degree of confidential detail which is now being passed on to the Opposition on this matter has set a new standard in transparency and information sharing. It is certainly far superior to anything I ever experienced when I served as an Opposition Member myself and the shoe was on the other foot.

We will continue to keep the Opposition up to date as Brexit continues to progress.

It will also not come as a surprise to know that we have either done, or are already doing, much of what has been suggested in relation to Brexit.

NEVER LOSE SIGHT OF THE PAST

Moving on to other matters, we must never lose sight of the past as we attempt to shape the present and through it the future.

In Government, we have felt very strongly that key moments in our history need to be commemorated. We have done so with both the 75th anniversary of the evacuation of the civilian population during the Second World War, in 2015, and the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum last year. These were significant watersheds in our development as a people and in the evolution of our distinct and separate identity.

There will be further landmarks to commemorate during 2018 also. This year will mark one hundred years since the end of World War One (1918-2018), a conflict where the strategic location of Gibraltar was important to the United Kingdom and its Allies. 2018 will mark 60 years since the first appointment of a Speaker to our Legislative Council in May 1958. It will be recalled that the Governor used to preside over meetings dressed in full military uniform until that point. It will also be 50 years since the negotiations for a new Constitution commenced in 1968, against the background of mounting pressure at the land frontier and at the United Nations. There are other anniversaries too.

ECONOMIC SUCCESS

At the same time as we do not lose sight of our past, we also look to the future.

We will continue to develop existing components of our economy and will look for the opportunities that new technology and a future outside the European Union will bring. Gibraltar is already ideally placed in many areas as the door opens on 2018. We have consistently delivered economic growth. We are tapping new markets and working to develop further the interest shown in Gibraltar from countries like China to leading nations in the Commonwealth family.

2018 will see us develop further our relations with the Commonwealth. Gibraltar has long been and will remain an enthusiastic participant in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, where my colleague Samantha Sacramento has been at the forefront. My colleague Steven Linares is an alternate on the board of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum and Sir Joe Bossano has continued to engage in the Commonwealth Telecommunications Union. This year, the Chief Minister has asked me to represent him, together with Minister Linares, at the gathering of Heads of Governments and Sports Ministers that will meet in Australia against the background of the Commonwealth Games.

This work with the Commonwealth is all the more valuable as we prepare to leave the European Union. I have had the opportunity to meet in London with a number of major Commonwealth countries, in some cases at their request. You will have seen that the recent visit to Gibraltar of the High Commissioner of Australia proved to be a great success. I am confident that 2018 will see an intensification of this work.

All this is possible because of a Chief Minister and a Ministerial team who have the drive, the determination, the energy, the ambition and the policies to continue to move Gibraltar forward. Each of us continues to deliver in their own area. No Government can claim to get absolutely everything right and there will be times when, in retrospect, something could have been better done differently. However, everything that we do and all our work is carried out in the firm conviction that it is in the best interests of Gibraltar, of you its people, our families and our children.

We ask for your continued support.

On behalf of my wife Penny and I, I take this opportunity to wish you all the very best in health and happiness for the coming New Year.Template

02-01-18 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR