A fine Gibraltarian equilibrium

A rock could easily smash a whole EU glass panel. Only diplomacy at its best can stop it

 

Try and pull that bit of loose thread and your jumper will fall apart. The European Union fabric can fray easily. On its fringes, Gibraltar is a dangling piece of yarn perhaps best left untouched.

The Rock is a well-earned nickname; it’s not just its shape. This British Overseas Territory is tough; it’s put up with all sorts of attacks. Even from El País, a pluralist paper, known for its authoritative, balanced commentaries: a journalism model whose surprisingly spiteful ink has often criticised Gibraltar and Spanish ministers alike.

The long-drawn debates around the British colony saw a sharp swerve in the summer of 2013. The Gibraltar government sank seventy spiked concrete blocks into the sea to hamper Spanish fishermen, who had been accused of poaching Gibraltarian fish.

A spectacularly provocative measure that prompted Spain to ignite Franco-regime-like reprisals. The border was indeed shut off between 1969 and 1985, during which time the colony’s airport was partially built on waters Spain claims as its own.

Gibraltar is well connected to its Spanish hinterland region, where unemployment sky-rocketed in recent times. Luckily the British colony has been enjoying growth all along (7 per cent in 2013), offering job opportunities to anyone willing to commute.

Yet Gibraltar can’t help being looked at with suspicion. Anything to do with decades of Spanish bad-mouthing? Any truth in it?

Eighteen months ago chief minister Fabian Picardo happily told the New Statesman that “we are governed by the rule of law. […] The British way of doing things is hugely important”. The piece is an advertorial; and it shows how desperately The Rock wishes to be perceived.

Picardo refused to accept the commonly held view that Gibraltar is a tax dodger’s haven. When people say “that Gibraltar is anything but an onshore financial services centre, you just have to look at the position of the UK,” he confidently asserted. “The difference between corporation tax in the UK and Gibraltar is smaller than the difference between corporation tax in the UK and Spain.”

Gibraltar is not on any blacklist, the chief minister emphasized. “We comply with European Union rules on money laundering and on directives that affect financial services.” That was in October 2013; the headline: ‘Gibraltar: the chief minister’s story’; a legitimate right to a narrative version. His final words on fiscal matters were clear-cut: “You would find it very difficult to find people who were in Gibraltar to evade tax.”

Fast forward eight months to August 2014. The EU changed its mind on The Rock. El País stood ready to board; the headline: ‘The Gibraltarian underworld’. The EU Commission grew unsure of Gibraltar’s self-proclaimed squeaky-clean image: smuggling and money laundering were its growing concerns.

EU observers on a mission to the narrow peninsula found out that 110 million packs of cigarettes had been illegally sold on the Spanish black market via Gibraltar. The World Health Organization affirmed illicit tobacco has been drastically curbed in Spain in the past years: other ways in have perhaps opened up.

The wider picture: a 2002 referendum rejected a joint sovereignty. Scaling up Gibraltar’s participation in the EU – The Rock firmly rejects a Brexit – and allowing it to have its own MEP as part exchange for abiding more strictly to continental standards could be a compromise.

What about a Hong Kong-style devolution? The ensuing domino effect: Morocco vociferously reclaiming Ceuta and Melilla, with Catalan separatists pursuing even further their secessionist goals. (Catalonia lost its independence in the same 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.)

Shrewd diplomacy is once more required. Especially if you still like wearing that old but cosy jumper of yours. Otherwise just pull the thread and see what happens. It could be quite fun to watch, you never know.

Alessio Colonnelli also contributes to openDemocracy, Shifting Grounds and Euro Crisis/LSE. He holds a combined B.A./M.A. in languages and literary translation from Padua University

23 Responses to “A fine Gibraltarian equilibrium”

  1. Paul O'Callaghan

    You’re not Frank from Brisbane by any chance ?

  2. Lizanne Olivero

    Please get your facts right! If Gibraltar relied on Spain for tobacco they would be reaping commision on the sales and would therefore not complain! Spanish cigarettes are not popular local consumption!
    As for our Economy, thank goodness that we are self sufficient or we would have been absolutely left dried out and without means of communication!

    Instead we are a thriving community who help out neighbours despite their antagonistic approach. We invest in property in Spain, employ their jobless by the thousands, purchase grocery, eat out etc etc etc
    what does Spain do? It bites the hand that feeds them.

    To all and sundry I say: come, visit our homeland and get to know us.

    By the way have you seen the size of Gibraltar and the rest of the Spanish coastline?????

    Logic says smuggling is simply impossible via this beautiful Isthmus but if it were to exist………please check the nationality % that actually carries this out…………sadly their own unemployed, homeless families desperate to earn a living.

  3. JAMES MCGIBBON

    I had the pleasure to exercise with the British Army in Gibralter during 1992. The exercise was widely reported in the Gibralter Press. It was a privalage to be escorted through the tunnels by a member of the Gibralter Regiment. I have fond memories of Gibralter and the people who are more British than the British. If the Spanish try any of their dirty work again then we will send in the veterans of the Black Watch and that will be the end of the matter.

  4. JAMES MCGIBBON

    You are cleary not informed. A task force is not required. Modern weapons are now deployed in the Falklands. And then there is the nuclear subs.

  5. swat

    Do you honestly think that any right minded Govt is ever going to use nuclear weapons, particularly over the Falklands? Maybe the Pope should arbitrate on this dispute and declare that they belong to the Argentines.
    Scrap Trident Now!

Comments are closed.