Gibraltar is absolutely not an obscure tax haven”, Says Gibraltar First Minister During Madrid Speech

NEWS: Spain’s Foreign Minister said “it was fine” for Fabian Picardo to speak in Madrid: “as long as no one forces me to listen”. The Chief Minister was introduced by the British Ambassador.

In a breakfast speech in central Madrid to a room filled with some 250 politicians, businessmen, diplomats and journalists at the Palace Hotel—directly opposite the Spanish Congress building on the Carrera de San Jerónimo—Mr. Picardo left the ball firmly in Madrid’s court after the Spanish Foreign Ministry intervened two weeks ago to prevent him speaking at a similar event at the nearby Ritz Hotel.

A small group of Spanish nationalists waving Spanish flags welcomed the Chief Minister outside, in protest at his visit.

“What does Spain win by closing all relations with a small territory like Gibraltar which is on its border?”, he wondered: “We do not wish to become the corner stone of Spanish foreign policy. It is incredible that two territories that border each other do not cooperate.”

“Dialogue is a political instrument, not an end in itself”.

The British Ambassador, Simon Manley, did, in the end, attend the event and introduced Mr. Picardo, saying the breakfast meeting “should facilitate cooperation” between the UK, Spain and Gibraltar.

The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel García Margallo told journalists at a trade conference in Murcia that “it was fine” for Mr. Picardo to speak in Madrid: “as long as no one forces me to listen”.

Referring to President Obama’s recent change in attitude towards Cuba and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s own new agreement with Andorra, the Chief Minister said he hoped a new deal could now also be reached on Gibraltar: “Times have changed and are still changing. I hope the same openness can now be applied to Gibraltar, beyond the already existing agreements”.

Given the non-existence of official bilateral, trilateral or quadrilateral dialogue at the moment, both Mr. Manley and Mr. Picardo expressed hope that a move could be made towards the establishment of more open, informal, “ad-hoc” talks between the parties.

“The absence of dialogue in the trilateral forum is not going to help create a return to bilateral dialogue”, he said, adding that: “With our backs turned to each other, no one is going to achieve anything”.

The previous tripartite agreement had been the format that had worked best “to great mutual benefit”, said the Chief Minister, suggesting Spain’s Popular Party government was equally if not more responsible for the conflictive rhetoric surrounding Gibraltar over the past few years: “The media environment now is very similar to the period between 1997 and 2003″, he said, in reference to the period in which former Popular Party Prime Minister José María Aznar was in the Moncloa.

Mr. Picardo said the four-party format the Spanish government has suggested—with the inclusion of the Andalusian regional government in negotiations—is “not right. The Gibraltar government is not a regional administration”.

Asked why Spanish, British and Gibraltar governments were not able to advance towards even the informal “ad hoc” talks, he replied that the governments were “still trying to schedule dates”.

On the most notorious issue currently defining Spanish-Gibraltar relations, Mr. Picardo firmly rejected repeated suggestions by Spanish government officials that Gibraltar was a tax haven or a smuggling den, or that somehow European Union legislation was not “fully” applied in the territory.

“Gibraltar is absolutely not an obscure tax haven. It complies rigorously with European agreements. There are no reasons for our tax authorities not to provide fiscal data to the Spanish tax authorities.”

He said Gibraltar tax authorities had now processed “dozens” of information request from their Spanish counterparts, and that the long queues Gibraltar residents and Spanish workers have to put up with to cross the border “are politically motivated”.

“They are not tax or customs related and they affect everyone in the same way”.

“In Gibraltar, we have managed to bring the issue of tobacco smuggling under control on our side without the need for long queues.”

In response to repeated questions about his government’s contacts with Podemos, the Chief Minister said he was not appropriate for him to comment, but that informal contacts are maintained with all Spanish political parties: “One day, perhaps a Spanish politician is going to wake up and ask what on earth they have been doing with Gibraltar. I don’t know if that politician will be from t

He said that the idea of Gibraltar one day becoming a Spanish region: “was about as bad as the idea of Ceuta and Melilla being handed over to Morocco. It wouldn’t be a bad thing if that’s what the people of Gibraltar decided they wanted”.