Jul 09 - Government laying foundations for a larger presence in Brussels
The Gibraltar Government is planning to expand the team, function and premises of the Gibraltar office in Brussels. Dr Joseph Garcia, Deputy Chief Minister, and the Gibraltar delegation have been identifying suitable premises in the EU capital during their visit.
The Gibraltar team was made up of Chief Legal Adviser Michael Llamas QC, Principal Secretary Caine Sanchez and PA Ernest Francis.
Gibraltar isn’t the only region with representation of their own in Brussels. A huge building houses the Catalan representation, many individual German states and regions like Cornwall and South West of England also have their own offices.
Dr Garcia has also continue to lobby members of the European Parliament on EU issues regarding Gibraltar. This included briefing two UKIP Members of the EU Parliament for the Southwest and Gibraltar, William Dartmouth and Julia Reid, on the continuing situation at the border.
The issues were also discussed with Green MEP Molly Scott Cato who sits on the Environment Committee, as well as various environmental issues including sewage contamination from Spain in to Western Beach. The complaint made by Gibraltar against Spain many years ago, still hasn’t been determined by the Commission.
Meetings also took place with other delegations, not directly involved in representing Gibraltar. They also met with the Secretariat and MEPs of the European Free Alliance, which includes Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya.
Dr Garcia said, "The Government took advantage of our time in Brussels in order to progress a number of issues. This included the meeting with the EU Commissioner on Monday in order to discuss the continuing problems at the border and an early opportunity to brief MEPs on the latest developments.
I am pleased to report that the MEPs have been extremely supportive of Gibraltar and a number of parallel strategies are now expected to develop as a result. The Government considered that it was important to get in there early and this is what we have done.
A third strand to the visit was to take further the expansion of the Gibraltar office in Brussels.
The Government is very pleased with the way that the visit has gone and we look forward to building on this in the coming months ahead."
