The Diplomat
The PSOE deputy for Cádiz and mayor of San Roque, Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix, travelled to Gibraltar yesterday for a meeting with the British colony’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo.
According to the Cadiz town council, the aim of the meeting was to continue to make progress on the agreement for a shared prosperity zone.
The Mayor agreed with Picardo that “this good neighbourliness is where we are going to continue working and where we are committed, from the responsibility that I am now assuming, to maintaining it in the present and in the future”.
We know,” said Ruiz Boix, “of the bonds of unity, coexistence, friendship and economic and labour relations that exist between the more than 300,000 inhabitants of Campo de Gibraltar and the city of Gibraltar”.
Likewise, the deputy added: “We have also assessed the latest incidents that have occurred in our region and mainly at the border, where we have worked in a coordinated manner so that they have the greatest fluidity, so that the more than 14,000 Spanish and foreign citizens who live in the region and who come daily to work in Gibraltar plus all the neighbours of Gibraltar who carry out activities in our region have the greatest fluidity at the border”.
In this sense, Ruiz Boix hopes that “next October 12, when these general elections are held in Gibraltar, there will be the opportunity to give continuity to those people who maintain a dialogue and who are keen to have a shared prosperity area”.
Ruiz Boix underlines the “coexistence” that has existed since 1982, when the government of the then Socialist Felipe González “opened” the border fence after “a dark period of closed relations and a closed border”. “Almost 40 years later we have strengthened, and that is where we have to continue working so that we can all share the economy, jobs and continue to cultivate good neighbourly relations on both sides of the border,” said the mayor.
Picardo, for his part, thanked the new MP for his cooperation in helping to resolve “the recent traffic problems” at the border.
