May 13 – “Gibraltar’s Vote Can Make A Difference” – EU Referendum Interview With Minister Costa
A recent survey by the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses (GFSB) found that 95% of small businesses were concerned about June’s referendum on the UK’s continued membership of the EU.
YGTV caught up with the Minister for Business and Employment Neil Costa to discuss the challenges posed by a possible “Brexit” and what the economic implications of such a result would be for Gibraltar…
YGTV: Why are so many small businesses worried about the upcoming referendum?
Minister Costa: Of all the issues that I deal with or we consider as a Government, I think that the EU referendum is by far the most important. The Deputy Chief Minister said in a recent opinion piece that the decision to vote to remain in the EU is probably the most important decision people will make politically in Gibraltar. I was wondering whether he was right - whether this was more important than a general election - and he is right because a Gibraltar government operates within a particular framework and that framework is the EU. The reason why we can have free healthcare, grants, social services etc., is only because we have been able to position our economy to successfully use the European market. We have many companies headquartered here because they have access to the single market. All the political parties in Gibraltar and its institutions have come out to say that people have to come out to vote – we all agree that staying in the EU is to Gibraltar’s absolute advantage.
YGTV: What would be the impact of Brexit on the Rock?
Minister Costa: The UK Exchequer has said that UK citizens would be £4,300 less well off a year outside the EU. We haven’t done this study in Gibraltar but we can also assume that we would be less well off if we were to leave. But the EU is not only about money and access to markets; the EU also provides grants for academic research. There are also social, community and environmental projects. The reason why we’re so anxious that the UK is holding this referendum at all is that we’ve managed to establish such an affluent, successful community on the back of our access to the single market.
For us it has an equally important dimension which is the Spanish factor. This has been – certainly in my lifetime – the most hostile Spanish Foreign Minister I can recall.
Although Margallo has been unsuccessful in all of his aims, there is not doubt that if the UK were to vote to leave the EU, then he may try to close the border. They may be able to, at that point, invent the reason why they should perhaps slow down traffic or stop every vehicle.
Despite all that I have said, I have no doubt that, if the unthinkable happens and we’re left out in the cold, the sun will rise the next day. We would have to negotiate our relationship with the EU and I don’t imagine other EU countries will be amenable to making it easy on the country that has just broken out of the club.
My feeling and the feeling in the international press is that in order to make a point to any country that might even think of doing what the UK has done, the EU will not make it easy for us to negotiate a good deal. But, even if that were to happen – and this will take a long time – we continue to be part of the EU until the new relationship is concluded.
YGTV: So what would you urge people to do on the 23rd June? Can our small voice make a difference?
Minister Costa: We have no choice but to vote at the referendum – people who think we’re not going to make a difference are, with respect, mistaken.
I have heard it said that Gibraltar’s vote will not make a difference in the referendum; nothing could be further from the truth. In the European Parliamentary Election of May 2014, the Green Party beat the Liberal Democrats by only 6,071 votes. If the 14,954 Gibraltarians who did not vote had voted for the Liberal Democrats, Sir Graham Watson would still be our MEP today.
In the referendum case it would be different; it would have to be a wafer-thin margin for Gibraltar to swing it one way or the other but my message to Gibraltarians is this: if it is wafer thin and we could have swung it by 10,000 votes and didn’t go out to vote we’re going to be kicking ourselves from here to eternity because we had the power within our hands to do something about it. I cannot stress enough the importance of going out to vote.
Even if the unthinkable does happen, in the same way that the Dockyard was closed without any consultation with us, this time we will be working with the UK government to make sure that whatever deal is negotiated is also of benefit to Gibraltar and we will, like we did in the 1980s, reposition our economy. Do we want to leave the EU? Absolutely not. Should it happen, should we panic? No – we will work through it together and achieve the same level of success.
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