Minister Albares attends Algeciras after cooling expectations regarding the agreement on Gibraltar
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will have this Tuesday in Algeciras (Cádiz) a meeting with municipal, provincial and regional authorities of the Campo de Gibraltar to address the progress in the negotiation on the Rock’s future relationship with the EU.
The meeting, which will begin from 6:00 p.m. at the headquarters of the General State Administration in Algeciras, is received with few expectations given the proximity of the European elections this Sunday and those of the United Kingdom, scheduled for July 4.
Albares himself has admitted that he does not believe that an agreement will be reached until the new British Government takes over. although he has stressed that the technical negotiations They continue their course despite the early elections in the United Kingdom.
The negotiations aim to resolve the situation in Gibraltar after it was left out of the agreement on the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU, effective from February 1, 2020.
The meeting with the minister is expected to be attended by the mayors of the eight municipalities of Campo de Gibraltar, the president of the Commonwealth, Susana Pérez (PP), and the counselor of the Presidency, Interior, Social Dialogue and Administrative Simplification, Antonio Sanz, representing the Andalusian government of Juanma Moreno (PP).
Sanz has announced that he will propose to the minister the need to create a tax statute for Campo de Gibraltar that allows it to compete “in similar conditions” with the Rock and has requested serenity and prudence in these negotiations because not just any agreement can be signed.
“You shouldn’t run to look for a photo”confirmed the Andalusian counselor, who believes that it is “very important that all guarantees are incorporated so that Campo de Gibraltar is a great beneficiary” of this agreement.
For Sanz, this first visit by Albares to Campo de Gibraltar is important ‘so that we can convey to him the reality of a region of more than 300,000 inhabitants that needs support’ and for which the agreement with Gibraltar can be “a historic opportunity to boost and leverage social development.” The counselor has said that he hopes that this agreement will serve to “correct the fiscal imbalance that exists between both territories,” and “compete under similar conditions to those of Gibraltar.”
The mayor of La Línea de la Concepción, Juan Franco (La Línea 100×100), has said that he hopes they will be transferred “some additional information” about the state of the negotiations, although he fears “that this will not be the case, given the current situation of paralysis.”
After expressing his disagreement with the meeting being held in Algeciras, taking into account that La Línea is the municipality mainly affected by this issue, the mayor confirmed that he will attend “with a constructive spirit and with the intention of continuing to contribute ideas so that the agreement arrive as soon as possible.” For his part, the mayor of San Roque and general secretary of the PSOE of the province of Cádiz, Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix, has recognized that this fifth meeting with Albares will be marked by the “uncertainty about the timing and impact of those elections.”
He has also criticized the PP for its “double speech”. On the one hand, the Andalusian president, “theoretically in tune with the agreement that was being closed,” and on the other, the party leaders in Genoa, who, he assures, “have positioned themselves more along the lines of the usual conflict of sovereignty.” , in line with Margallo’ (former Foreign Minister), to “try to obtain electoral assets”, doing, in his opinion, “following Vox”. EFE
