Watson welcomes Gibraltar agreement but remains cautious on key issues

4.05.52pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 19th Sep 2006

Following yesterday's landmark agreement which saw Spain and Gibraltar agree to cooperate on matters which have soured relations for decades, Graham Watson (MEP for the South West and Gibraltar) said he understands that Gibraltarians continue to feel suspicious about Spanish intentions.

The agreement, which comes at the end of nearly two years of tripartite talks between Spain, the UK and Gibraltar, will for the first time enable flights from Spain and the rest of Europe to Gibraltar. Currently Gibraltar airport only has flights to and from Britain.

Under the agreement too, frontier controls will be relaxed with a 'nothing to declare' customs channel, easing traffic jams on the border; Spain has agreed to recognise Gibraltar's dialling code, which will allow mobile phone roaming in Spain using Gibraltarian mobile phones and also put an end to the shortage of telephone numbers in Gibraltar; and former Spanish workers on the Rock will receive pensions which were frozen at the time when the border with Spain was closed.

Speaking in Berlin, Graham Watson MEP said:

"I understand that while everyone in Gibraltar welcomes the greater use of the airport, how this expanded use comes about is a controversial and sensitive matter for Gibraltarians. Gibraltar is entitled to be included in EU Civil Aviation measures as a matter of right, and I will continue to fight for those rights. In relation to the present agreement it is primarily for the people of Gibraltar to decide what is acceptable to them and what is not. On pensions it is important that there is no discrimination between Spanish pensioners, on the one hand, and Gibraltarian, Moroccan or other EU pensioners on the other who have also had pension contributions frozen."