<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The People's Party (PP) Parliamentary Group in Congress has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the reasons for awarding the Commandery of Isabella the Catholic to some of the senior officials who made the final agreement on Gibraltar possible, "when the negotiation process is still open and without a final text or the endorsement of the Cortes Generales (Spanish Parliament)."</strong></h4> On July 19, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, awarded the Commandery of Isabella the Catholic to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Global Affairs, Diego Martínez Belío; the Secretary of State for the European Union, Fernando Sampedro; the Director of the Minister's Office, Sergio Cuesta; the Director General of Foreign and Security Policy, Alberto Ucelay; the Secretary General for the European Union and Diplomat, Carlos Moreno; and the Ambassador, Permanent Representative to the EU, Marcos Alonso, according to diplomatic sources who spoke to <em>The Diplomat</em>. In a series of parliamentary questions, registered on July 22 and published on September 8 by the Official Gazette of the Cortes Generales (BOCG), the People's Party points out that the awards were presented "at a ceremony held at the Viana Palace, without public notice or media coverage," and that the distinctions given to each of the recipients were justified by "their role in the negotiation" of the future agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Commission on Gibraltar. "The ceremony was not officially made public until days later and took place outside the usual procedures in our country, which reserves this type of award for completed tasks, with accredited results and in public events, in the presence of family members and the media," the PP laments. "It is especially striking," continues the main opposition party, "that these distinctions have been awarded when the negotiation process on Gibraltar is still open and without a definitive text or endorsement from the Cortes Generales." "Furthermore, significant unknowns persist regarding substantial issues such as airport and port management, police and customs cooperation, fiscal and environmental harmonization, and the rights of cross-border workers,” the PP asserts. “There is also no clarity regarding the application of the Schengen Area or the real scope of the announced preliminary agreement, the interpretation of which differs between the parties,” it adds. Furthermore, “it is striking” that, “despite the minister's rhetorical insistence on the government's feminist foreign policy, this perspective has not been translated into the formation of the Ministry's negotiating teams,” warns the PP, referring to the lack of women in the negotiation process. For all these reasons, the PP asks the Ministry of Foreign Affairs what “objective merits” Diego Martínez Belío, Fernando Sampedro, Alberto Ucelay, Carlos Moreno, Marcos Alonso, and Sergio Cuesta have demonstrated “that justify granting the Commandery of Isabella the Catholic.” Likewise, it asks the “reason why the Spanish ambassador in London, José, has not been decorated.” Pascual Marco, “despite his institutional role in the negotiation of the agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Commission on Gibraltar,” and the “reasons why the work of the then head of the Gibraltar Affairs Office in charge of negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Commission on Gibraltar from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself,” Jorge Notivoli, who left his post last August to become a counselor at the Spanish Embassy in Washington, has not been recognized. Finally, the PP asks why these distinctions were awarded “before the agreement was finalized,” why the decorations took place “in a closed event, without public notice or media presence, contravening standard practice in this type of recognition,” and whether there are “recent precedents of granting similar distinctions to officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation for tasks not yet completed.” On June 11, José Manuel Albares, the Vice President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy reached “a final political agreement on the key aspects of the future EU-UK Agreement on Gibraltar” after meeting in Brussels in the presence of Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo. The European Commission (with direct participation from Spain) and the UK government have been negotiating an agreement for Gibraltar's future relationship with the EU after Brexit for five years, based on the so-called New Year's Eve Agreement reached by the Spanish and British governments on December 31, 2020. Last June's meeting was the fourth tripartite meeting at the political level.
