The Diplomat
Ciudadanos has asked the Government to explain what measures it is promoting to prepare for the eventuality of there finally being no agreement between the EU and the UK on the future relationship with Gibraltar, and more specifically on the financial support that would be provided to the region in the event of this happening.
This was stated in a parliamentary question in Congress, to which Europa Press had access, after the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, said this week in an interview with this agency that both the Government and the EU, which is negotiating with London, are “prepared for any scenario”.
In this sense, the Cs deputy María Carmen Martínez Granados has asked the Government to clarify “what actions it has promoted to prepare the region of Campo de Gibraltar for an eventual scenario of no agreement” and more specifically “what type of financial support it is preparing” for the inhabitants of this region of Cádiz “in the event that this agreement does not materialise”.
The Cs deputy stresses in the explanatory statement that, according to data collected by the Elcano Royal Institute, “around 18.5% of the GDP of the Campo de Gibraltar region was explained by the interactions with the Rock just before the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union” and that this area “is one of the main economic engines of the province of Cadiz”.
Therefore, Martínez Granados insists, “that a real agreement is reached soon, with legal force, that leaves behind the uncertainty about the relations between the Campo de Gibraltar and the Rock is key for the future of this region, its neighbours and all the people of Cadiz”.
She also asked the Government about the measures it is promoting, “in collaboration with the Junta de Andalucía and the municipalities of Campo de Gibraltar, to strengthen the productive fabric of this region of Cádiz for the future”.
On another matter, she was interested in knowing the current status of the negotiations between the European Commission and the British Government “to translate the pre-agreement on Gibraltar reached between Spain and the United Kingdom” on 31 December 2020 into a binding agreement.
According to Albares in his interview with Europa Press, Spain and the EU have put a proposal on London’s table “a global, reasonable and balanced agreement” to achieve the zone of shared prosperity agreed by the two governments, and it is now up to the British government to say whether it accepts it.
Finally, the Cs deputy wants to know whether, if the agreement on the EU’s future relationship with the Rock after Brexit is finally reached, “the Cortes Generales will be able to debate and vote” on this text for its ratification.
