A historic meeting in the Spanish city of Córdoba yesterday saw ministers from Britain and Spain sit down for the first time with political leaders from Gibraltar to resolve long-standing squabbles over the Rock. Deals over joint use of Gibraltar airport, as well as pensions, telephones, border controls and culture, were agreed by the Europe minister, Geoff Hoon, the Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, and Gibraltar's chief minister, Peter Caruana.
The key agreement involves joint use of the airport by Spain and Gibraltar, with the building of a terminal that will straddle the border zone. Passenger aircraft will soon be able to fly from Gibraltar to Spanish airports, turning Gibraltar into a regional airport. Spanish officials said that the Spanish flag would also fly on the Rock for the first time since 1954, when the dictator General Francisco Franco closed the Spanish consulate in a fit of rage over a visit by the Queen. The flag will fly outside a new branch of the Cervantes Institute, Spain's equivalent of the British Council.
The about-turn in Anglo-Spanish relations over the Rock came after the prime minister, José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero's socialist government dropped Spain's refusal to negotiate directly with Gibraltarians. The issue of sovereignty was left deliberately to one side in three-way talks over the past 18 months. Spain, however, has not dropped its claim to sovereignty over the two-and-a-quarter square mile colony. Spain formally ceded Gibraltar to Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. |