Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 11:29

The lack of movement on a treaty to regulate Gibraltar’s relationship with the European Union will have caught nobody by surprise. It has long been understood that there will be no movement until Spain has a new government. This is only the latest in a series of unhelpful delays which have jinxed the negotiations from the very outset.

FROZEN
When in May Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a snap general election for 23rd July, the treaty negotiations were frozen in an instant. The inordinate length of time it has taken to form government in Spain has seen Gibraltar hold and complete an election of its own with the GSLP/Liberals returned to office. Indeed, newly re-elected Chief Minister Fabian Picardo wasted no time in calling on Mr Sanchez to get on with it so that the new treaty can finally be concluded.