Tuesday, 27 March 2007

Gibraltar Tri-Partite Forum negotiations held at Rock Hotel


A number of agreements signed at Córdoba in September last year were finalized and an agenda for a second round of negotiations were settled at a meeting of the Tripartite Forum on Gibraltar, headed by Peter Caruana, Chief Minister, Anthony Smith, Foreign Office Minister for European Affairs, and his Spanish counterpart, José Pons, held at the Rock Hotel yesterday.
At a press conference held at the end of the meeting, Caruana expressed his pleasure at the “satisfactory development of the Cordoba agreements”, among other things. The Chief Minister went on to>list the items that are subject to a second round of negotiations, which include environmental, judicial, financial and fiduciary services, police, maritime communications issues, and matters related to Schengen Treaty visas.
The previous round of agreements established joint use of the Rock’s airport (the first flight to and from Madrid took place on December 16th and will be expanded in May), an increase in Gibraltar’s telecommunications system, the establishment of an Instituto Cervantes (Spanish equivalent of the British Council) office and a smoother entry and exit system across the frontier.
The Tripartite Forum also expressed their commitment to these negotiations and their congratulations to the teams of experts working on all sides to move them ahead.

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