Feb 11 - Chief Minister Fabian Picardo Shows Gibraltar's "Culture of Compliance" in Brussels
A year into the first term, the Chief Minister stated to the European Union that Gibraltar would get up to scratch with all EU compliance and that it would never fall behind again. 25 months into his term, Fabian Picardo returns to Brussels triumphant, to show the EU Gibraltar’s “Culture of Compliance”.
On the 28th February 2013, the Government announced that it was now up to date with all 43 directives that were still pending. That day, Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo said: “ This is a massive achievement for Gibraltar that cannot be underestimated. Although many may sometimes feel disappointed by the EU, it represents both huge advantages and challenges for Gibraltar. In the context of our relationships with the EU and the UK, it is therefore very important for Gibraltar reputationally that we should have complied with our obligations in a timely manner so that we can demonstrate that what our political opponents say about our jurisdiction is simply untrue."
The Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Joseph Garcia, Albert Pogio from the Gibraltar London Office, Ernest Gomez and Michael Llamas make up the Gibraltar delegation for this trip to Brussels. Just under a year after Gibraltar met all the required directives, the delegation, in a series of meetings with MEPs and commissions, will raise the important issues and continue to rally support for Gibraltar on the European stage.
The issues include aviation, financial services and the environment, all sectors where Gibraltar has fully met it’s requirements for EU compliance. Just months before the Parliament breaks up, elections for MEPs and up and coming changes in Commissions, the delegation are raising the awareness and once again showing Gibraltar’s “culture of compliance”, much to the detriment of any who might want to give the impression of the opposite.
The aviation issues are very fresh in everybody's minds as last week it was announced that Lib Dem MEP Sir Graham Watson had announced a feat for Gibraltar with an amendment calling for air passenger rights for those flying in and out of Gibraltar, being approved in a debate held in the European Parliament. Sir Graham explained that this was a victory for Gibraltar and for ‘the equal treatment of all EU citizens’. He added, ‘in Parliament and Council, people have been asking “why are we debating a sovereignty dispute when we should be debating passenger rights?” The answer is because this is about the rights of every EU citizen – Gibraltarian, Spanish or other – who uses Gibraltar’s Airport.'
With meetings this year involving Sir Graham Watson MEP, Brian Simpson MEP, Ariene McCarthy MEP, Christopher Fjellner MEP and Emanuelle Maire (Head of Unit “Internal Market & Airport”), the delegation have been very busy commuting across Europe’s capital to sit down and address the real issues that affect Gibraltar and its people.
It’s the delegation’s second day in Brussels and at the lunch time press conference we meet with the team to find out how their morning went. It’s clear that Fabian’s view point on this trip is simple, Gibraltar is in the EU, it has met all the transpositions required to be there and therefore should have all the rights of it’s membership in their entirety.
During the course of this visit, there are meetings with high level technocrats, the “civil service” of the European Union. This is the focus of this trip. Last year’s delegation met with Commissioners, this year they are meeting with the people that get things done in Europe.
Later this year the commissions will be changing and the MEPs could change at the next election, what won’t change are those that hold positions that invariably deliberate and influence on European matters, regardless of who is voted in. Speaking to YGTV, the Chief Minister said that this was one of the last opportunities to present these issues to the Commissions and their DGs.
The Chief Minister also talked about "Pre-Cordoba" agreement and "Post-Cordoba agreement” times and the hypocrisy of Spain which continues to bring up “issues”, such as money laundering, in which case, Gibraltar not only meets all EU Directives, but also surpasses Spain in what it does to help combat this issue. He continued to talk about Spain breaking the Cordoba agreement and said that it is not an option for Gibraltar to break the agreement or to inflict any kind of punishment on the pensioners in Spain that rely on a UK pension.
