Spain warns the UN that the EU-UK Treaty will not prevent it from demanding the “full restitution” of Gibraltar

Eduardo González Spain’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Héctor Gómez, warned the UN Special Committee on Decolonization that the agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom on the future of Gibraltar “cannot replace the only real negotiation still pending: the full restitution of our sovereign integrity.” “Spain believes in an international order based on respect for and compliance with the rules, which are the foundation of this Organization’s actions and which have been created by its own members,” Gómez stated in New York during his address to the so-called “Committee of 24.” For this reason, and “since Spain continues to be the victim of a colonial situation that seriously affects our territorial integrity and which we consider an obstacle contrary to international law, we must reiterate our position on the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Gibraltar,” he declared. In this regard, he recalled that UN resolutions declare that “any attempt aimed at breaking, in whole or in part, the national unity and territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations” and that Resolution 2353 (XXII) of 1967, concerning the territory of Gibraltar, “urges its decolonization precisely on the basis of this essential principle of territorial integrity.” Furthermore, Héctor Gómez also recalled that “the Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom with respect to Gibraltar safeguards the respective legal positions of Spain and the United Kingdom regarding sovereignty and jurisdiction” and, therefore, “Spain reiterates its call to the United Kingdom to address the decolonization of Gibraltar with full respect for the principle of territorial integrity.” “We trust that the aforementioned EU-based agreement will serve to create a new model of coexistence between the inhabitants of Gibraltar and their neighbors in the Campo de Gibraltar region and address the imbalances stemming from the colonial situation,” but “none of the agreements within the EU framework can replace the only real negotiation still pending,” he warned. “This Organization and this Committee have mandated both parties to the dispute to negotiate an end to the colonial situation affecting Spain, which requires the full restoration of our sovereign integrity,” he insisted. “This decolonization process must be governed by the United Nations and will not conclude until the General Assembly so decides,” he concluded. At the same session of the Committee of 24, Gibraltar's Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, stated this Monday in New York that the Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom on the future of the Rock creates "a better modus vivendi" between the neighbors on both sides of the border "without touching the question of sovereignty, which remains entirely separate, and without compromising in any way our right to self-determination." "Article 2 of the Treaty makes it clear that nothing in it, nor anything done in its application, affects the respective legal positions on sovereignty and jurisdiction," he added. "We can build prosperity with Spain, we can build friendship with Spain, we want to, we are doing it, but we will never renounce our right to self-determination," he insisted.

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