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REVEALED: Yes or No is not self-determination, Spain tells the UN in an official document
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by our Political correspondent
As the new Constitution took effect yesterday, it emerged that Spain has officially told the UN that as far as it is concerned, whether the people of Gibraltar voted Yes or No, this does not constitute an act of self-determination.
The official Spanish line thus raises questions about the sincerity of the so-called new attitude by Spain and what response, to counter it, Britain and the Gibraltar Government are to make.
What is again disappointing is that the official Spanish position has not been put in the public domain in Gibraltar so that the public can be properly informed - but fortunately the GSLP/Liberal Alliance has come across the Spanish document. This they make clear in a Press statement issued yesterday.
OPPOSITION STATEMENT
In their statement, the Opposition recall that the new Constitution came into effect yesterday following the referendum last November which the United Kingdom accepted as an act of self-determination.
The position at the United Nations before and after that referendum took place has not changed at all, they say.
And add: People were invited by a resolution of the House of Assembly to vote in a referendum in which by the very text of the ballot paper it was made clear that in the exercise of their right to self-determination they were being asked to vote "yes" or "no" to the new constitution.
Spain has written a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Chairman of the Committee of 24, which it has asked to be circulated as an official document in the December meeting of the General Assembly, when the item dealing with decolonisation is discussed and the annual Gibraltar consensus decision is recorded.
The yearly consensus calls for the United Kingdom and Spain to negotiate Gibraltar's future in the spirit of the Brussels process.
In the letter Spain makes clear, that as far as it is concerned, whether people voted "yes" or "no" to the new Constitution, this did not constitute an act of self-determination.
'DOUBTFUL LEGALITY'
Spain also makes the point that it considers the referendum "a purely local initiative" which is "of doubtful legality" because it is based on administrative rules used for the referendum of 2002 where we rejected the principle of sharing sovereignty with Spain.
It will be recalled that during the course of the referendum campaign the fact that there was no basis in law to make the referendum binding on anyone emerged as a result of correspondence with the Attorney General.
Spain concludes that for this and a variety of other reasons, nobody can claim that neither the referendum nor the constitution, which has come into effect, has any effect on our decolonisation which has to be achieved in negotiations between the United Kingdom and Spain.
In other words,says the Opposition, our international status does not change one iota as a result of the new constitution.
It is a matter for regret that the United Kingdom Government has chosen to do absolutely nothing to refute and reject the Spanish position by circulating its own letter to the General Assembly defending the referendum as an act of self-determination and the new constitution as a decolonising instrument.
This clearly points to what the Opposition has been predicting is likely to happen during the course of 2007 at the United Nations. Namely that the same UN consensus resolution will be approved with British support as has been the case since 1985 when the UN welcomed the bilateral Brussels negotiating process as the route to Gibraltar's decolonisation.
CAMPAIGN
The Opposition will continue to campaign for Gibraltar's decolonisation to be properly completed without leaving any room for doubt or for Spain to continue its campaign that the only form of decolonisation open to us is for Gibraltar to come under Spanish sovereignty.
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