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No agreement on new Preamble to Constitution
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by Joe Garcia
The meeting of the constitution committee went on for over an hour and a half yesterday evening to discuss the text of the Despatch to the constitution and a letter received from foreign secretary Jack Straw on the Preamble.
The Despatch is a letter to be sent by the Foreign Secretary to the Governor setting out what the new constitution is all about.
The Despatch will take note that the people of Gibraltar have the right to self-determination, but will add that the UK takes the view that such a right is constrained by the Treaty of Utrecht.
The Despatch will also note that Gibraltar does not share the view that this constraint exists and that the acceptance by Gibraltar of the new constitution would be on that basis.
The contents of the Despatch were already roughly agreed following the recent deliberations in London, and in any case it can be described as a purely UK document - the Foreign Secretary sending instructions to the Governor.
PREAMBLE
The Preamble to the new constitution is something else. This matter has bogged down discussions on the new constitution.
The Preamble is seen as an important part of any constitution, as was the case when the 1969 constitution was being hammered out. At the time, the UK wanted to proceed firstly with discussions on the internal workings of the constitution, putting aside the all-important Preamble.
At the time, the Gibraltar delegation refused to consider the internal workings of the constitution until the wording of the Preamble was first agreed, which as everyone knows, was to contain the all-important reference to sovereignty, in that there cannot be a transfer of sovereignty to another state against the freely and democratically expressed wishes of the people of Gibraltar. That guarantee has since been referred to simply as 'the Preamble', with everyone knowing what it means and represents.
As regards the new constitution, the House of Assembly constitution
committee agreed that the new Preamble should retain the sovereignty guarantee of the 1969 constitution, plus a new reference to the effect that the referendum would be deemed to be an act of self-determination, with Gibraltar ceasing to be a colony.
This addition to the new Preamble has been rejected by the UK in the negotiations that have been taking place.
At the last round of talks held in London, the Leader of the Opposition Joe Bossano produced an alternative wording, which did not refer to the emotive word 'self-determination' but which effectively meant the same thing. The UK delegation took it away to put to ministers.
The letter from Mr Straw considered by the committee yesterday was a reply to it.
It is now expected that a written text of what the letter says will be made available to Mr Bossano so that he can reply to Mr Straw's own reply to his alternative wording, which was meant to break the stalemate.
According to the chief minister Peter Caruana, the letter now received from Mr Straw says that 'it is too soon to settle the text of any further preambular paragraphs'.
It can be said that yesterday's discussions on the Preamble were inconclusive and, as was the case in 1969, this question will presumably need to be settled before the rest of the constitution can be accepted or rejected, even if the UK view is that Gibraltar should accept the new internal constitution before it knows what the Preamble will say!
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