Frontier Bridging Measures Should Be Guaranteed Says GSD
The GSD is calling on the Government to ensure that the “status quo is maintained while there is a prospect of negotiations on a possible treaty.”
A statement from the GSD follows below:
Gibraltar had been told by Mr Picardo’s Government that bridging measures had been put in place till the end of June to allow the negotiations on a treaty for a future relationship with EU to proceed without affecting people on the ground. This would effectively maintain the status quo given that the Government had failed to obtain a deal by the end of the transition period. The Government had also said that the expectation was that the bridging measures would be extended if it was not possible to conclude the negotiations by the end of June.
We are now at the beginning of June and the Spanish authorities have started stamping the passports of British resident Blue ID card holders which in practice disregards the bridging measures that had operated so far. Worse still the negotiations with the EU have not even started yet even though it was said they would end by June. The Government has stated that this measure in respect of Blue ID card holders may be about travel to the UK although it does not know. But how is this logical? ID card holders of whatever colour reside in Gibraltar. Surely if it is about the issue of monitoring travel to Spain by UK residents the Spanish authorities should stamp the passports of persons without an ID card of any colour.
Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi said:
“The GSD calls on Government to ensure that the status quo is maintained while there is a prospect of negotiations on a possible treaty. That means that it should be confirmed now that bridging measures will be extended till the conclusion of negotiations – whenever that takes place – and that Spain will revert to the previous practice and stop stamping passports of Blue ID card holders. Otherwise Mr Picardo will be piling the failure to obtain bridging measures on his failure to obtain a safe and beneficial treaty for Gibraltar so far. It is worth reflecting on the fact that the people of Gibraltar have been left behind because of the Government’s failures and we are the only British place now without a deal and without any apparent immediate prospect of one.
Let’s not beat about the bush here. We have been warning about the Government’s failure to secure freedom of movement for British residents of Gibraltar when Spain bagged long-term freedom of movement for its workers. We should have obtained simultaneous rights at that stage in 2018 but Mr Picardo lost that opportunity. They lost a second opportunity to conclude a deal by the end of December 2020 even though the UK got a deal for itself. That meant we got left behind with a non-enforceable flimsy and vague framework. For Government to fail again to conclude a safe and beneficial treaty would be bad for Gibraltar. In the meantime any failure to get bridging measures would simply exacerbate the situation and lies at the Government’s door alone.”
