Acting Spanish foreign minister says the EU referendum result opens up new possibilities for the Rock

The UK and Gibraltar governments have flatly rejected Madrid’s suggestion that the Brexit vote could lead to shared sovereignty of the British territory and may even pave the way for its eventual return to Spain.



In an interview on Friday morning, Spain’s acting foreign minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, said the referendum result had significantly advanced the prospect of a Spanish flag flying on the rock of Gibraltar.

“It’s a complete change of outlook that opens up new possibilities on Gibraltar not seen for a very long time,” he told Onda Cero radio. “I hope the formula of co-sovereignty – to be clear, the Spanish flag on the rock – is much closer than before.”

He said the envisaged joint sovereignty would be along the lines of the model discussed by the former Spanish prime minister, José María Aznar and his then British counterpart, Tony Blair, 14 years ago: “British-Spanish sovereignty for a time, followed by Gibraltar’s return to Spanish sovereignty”.

He stressed that he was not celebrating the UK’s decision to leave the EU, but his remarks – and his suggestion that any talks on sovereignty should include Gibraltar – were met with a blunt response.

“I want to be absolutely clear,” said David Lidington, the UK’s minister for Europe. “The United Kingdom will continue to stand beside Gibraltar. We will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against your wishes. Furthermore, the UK will not enter into a process of sovereignty negotiations with which Gibraltar is not content.”

He paid tribute to the people of Gibraltar, saying they had built “a remarkable success story” through hard work, resilience and adaptability. “I know Gibraltar and Gibraltarians will rise to the challenge again, and make British Gibraltar stronger still,” he said.

The territory’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, responded angrily to Margallo’s words.

In an almost direct echo of Lidington’s statement, he told Gibraltar’s parliament: “Let me be absolutely clear. Despite the noises that are bound to be made by some in the neighbouring nation – indeed, some have already been made this morning – this government is confident in the support from the British government that there will be not talks, or even talks about talks, against the express wishes of the people of Gibraltar in respect of the sovereignty of Gibraltar.”

He dismissed Margallo’s intervention as irrelevant noise and a waste of breath. “Such ideas will never prosper,” he said. “Gibraltar will never pay a sovereignty price for access to a market. Gibraltar will never be Spanish in whole, in part or at all.”

Rather than paying attention to the noises from Madrid, Picardo said, Gibraltarians should focus on more pressing issues, such as how best to protect and redirect the territory’s economy.



He also contrasted the overwhelmingly pro-remain vote in Gibraltar, where almost 96% of people vote for continued EU membership, with the results in the UK. But despite their best efforts, said Picardo, the contribution of Gibraltarians “did not even move the needle”. The Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce, which called Brexit “a leap in the dark”, had also backed the remain vote.

Earlier on Friday, Picardo had called for a cool and considered response to the vote on Twitter:

A British Overseas Territory for 300 years known to its 30,000 residents as the Rock, Gibraltar has long been a thorny issue in British-Spanish relations.



The Anglo-Dutch fleet captured it in 1704 during the war of Spanish succession. British sovereignty was formalised in 1713 by the treaty of Utrecht, and it became a British colony in 1830.



Tensions have flared periodically ever since. Blair and Aznar attempted to find a solution, but it proved elusive. A referendum was held on the issue of joint sovereignty in November 2002, in which the idea was rejected by almost 99% of Gibraltar’s voters.