Friday, January 31, 2020 - 11:19 Joe Garcia

GIBRALTAR HAD ONE ONE FOOT IN AND ONE FOOT OUT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

When Gibraltar joined the EU not all aspects of the EU treaties applied to us. We were outside the Common Agricultural Policy; outside the Common Fisheries Policy; Gibraltar applied no VAT; it was also outside the Custom Union.

And we have been outside the Schengen Area given that the United Kingdom opted out of the Schengen Agreement.

That is to say we had one foot in and one foot out of the European Union. Now, we will be completely out of the EU. But we have to look back to look forward.

The questions are answered by Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia, who also has responsibilities for European affairs.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT OUT OF THE EU?

So that covers some events during the period that we have been in the European Union.What should we expect when we are out?

We did not want Brexit.Despite the decision to leave, the government has taken decisive action.

We have led with ambition, persistence and determination with a defined message and a clear set of objectives.

A set of objectives which would allow Gibraltar’s economy to continue to flourish.

Downing Street itself has repeated over the last 24 months that it will work for a Brexit deal which fully recognises the Rock’s priorities.

A deal that works for all parts of the UK family including Gibraltar.

We know what our priorities are. We therefore know what we need to achieve to make Brexit work.

An important objective was to maintain and enhance our trading relationship with the UK.

The UK Government has already made it absolutely clear that Gibraltar’s access to the UK market will remain unchanged post-Brexit.

They have also made it clear that such access will not only be maintained but it will be broadened where possible.

Access to the UK market is essential to Gibraltar’s economic sustainability.We now have that access.We will keep it in the future.

Such assurances have not only been provided in respect of future trading arrangements.

We have also extracted from the UK Government commitments which will ensure the same treatment post-Brexit for our students and our patients.

We have agreed with the UK Department for International Trade to put in place a mechanism for ensuring that Gibraltar is consulted on the Free Trade Agreements the UK plans to negotiate outside the EU. This is a new opening for us.

It will spur our renewed engagement with the Commonwealth.

That leaves us with the border. The debate here is different to that in Northern Ireland. Their concern is more about the movement of goods than of people. Gibraltar is not in the Customs Union so our focus is different.

They do not want what is termed a hard Brexit with controls and check-points.We have controls and checkpoints already. The debate here is about the intensity of those controls once we have left the European Union.

This is important to residents on both sides.

It is also important to frontier workers.We should bear in mind that approximately 50% of Gibraltar’s workforce are cross-frontier workers.

Fortunately, the Spanish rhetoric with regard to the border has changed dramatically over the last 24 months.

We have gone from Sr. Margallo’s threat that post-Brexit it would be “perfectly possible” to close the border; to Sr. Dastis’ indications that the border “won’t suffer too many changes”; and to Sr. Sanchez’s comments in March when he stated that fluidity at the border was “fundamental”.

The political will therefore seems to be there.

There are legal solutions which exist which could secure the smooth passage of persons across the border even in a post-Brexit world.We have worked hard on different options.

And we will continue to do so.

FULL INTERVIEW IN PANORAMA PRINT EDITION

31-01-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR