Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, continued his visit to Campo de Gibraltar yesterday, meeting with representatives of the workers in Gibraltar, with cross-border social agents and with the mayor of La Línea de la Concepción, Juan Franco, the most affected municipality. for the negotiations on the future of the Rock.
The minister held a meeting, at the headquarters of the Government Subdelegation in Cádiz, with the Cross-Border Group, which includes, among other organizations, the Chamber of Commerce, the Confederation of Businessmen of Cádiz and the unions. “I have informed you about the progress in the negotiation of the agreement and we agreed to remain in contact and join forces to reach an agreement beneficial for everyone in the Campo de Gibraltar,” Albares declared through the X social network.
Likewise, he met with representatives of the Association of Spanish Workers in Gibraltar (Ascteg). “I have informed them about the progress in negotiating the agreement and we have exchanged information about the defense of the rights of cross-border workers,” the minister explained through the same social network.
Albares was also received by the mayor of La Línea de la Concepción, Juan Franco, and with the municipal corporation, to whom he informed that “the well-being of its citizens” guides the work of the Ministry “to achieve a good agreement for everyone in the area”.
For its part, the City Council expressed in a press release the mayor’s “satisfaction” with this visit, which “represents differential treatment towards La Línea de la Concepción.” “Although for obvious reasons he did not want to reveal the content of some of the issues discussed, he did comment on issues of the importance of the environment, pensions, labor rights, legal and tax regime for companies and fishing, among others, some of the which already have important advances,” it added.
Furthermore, both parties recalled during the meeting that there are 13,700 non-Spanish citizens registered in the city, in addition to another 32,000 people residing in Gibraltar, “that if the Fence is dismantled they will begin to circulate through the municipality, without having the capacity to offer public services in the face of said demand due to economic and budgetary restrictions.” In this sense, Franco assured that, on the part of the Ministry, avenues of dialogue have been opened to address this and other issues.
The mayor also referred to the special tax regime for the city, which he has defended “for years”, and which is even “already viewed favorably by the Junta de Andalucía” for the entire region. This regime, according to Franco, should entail specific and concrete measures for La Línea “because, otherwise, the situation could be even worse than the one experienced when the border was closed” in 1969.
During the first day in the area, Albares met in Algeciras with representatives of the Andalusian Government and the mayors of Campo de Gibraltar, before whom he acknowledged that it will not be possible to close an agreement with the United Kingdom on the future fit of Gibraltar in the EU before the British elections on July 4, but insisted that the negotiations “have not stopped” and that “very important steps have been taken in various matters.”
