27/09/2006 - Tripartite Agreement to End 'Siege' of Gibraltar

On 18 September 2006 representatives of the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Spain concluded in Cordoba, Spain, a landmark agreement on a range of cross-cutting issues affecting the Rock and the campo Gibraltar removing many of the restrictions imposed by Spain.

The agreement includes a deal over shared use of Gibraltar airport, signalling an end to the blockade on flights between Spain and Gibraltar that has been in place since the late 1970s. British commercial flights to Gibraltar will no longer have to manoeuvre around restrictions in Spanish airspace and the airport will now open up to flights from the rest of Europe.

The agreement will also improve telecommunications, with Spain finally granting recognition of Gibraltar's international dialling code, a measure that will instantly reduce phone costs for the 28,000 inhabitants.

Border restrictions will also be eased, reducing delays for the thousands of commuters and tourists who travel between Spain and Gibraltar each day.

During the War of the Spanish Succession, British and Dutch troops, allies of Archduke Charles, the Austrian pretender to the Spanish Crown, formed a Confederate fleet and attacked various towns on the southern coast of Spain. On 04 August 1704 the confederate fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke, captured the town of Gibraltar in the name of the Archduke Charles. Terms of surrender were agreed upon, after the majority of the population (some four thousand) chose to leave Gibraltar.

Franco-Spanish troops failed to retake the town, and British sovereignty over Gibraltar was subsequently recognised by the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the war. Spain ceded Gibraltar and Minorca to the United Kingdom, which has retained sovereignty over the former ever since, despite all attempts by Spain to recapture it.

In the 1950s, Spain, then under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, renewed its claim to sovereignty over Gibraltar, sparked in part by the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1954 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Rock's capture. For the next thirty years, Spain restricted movement between Gibraltar and Spain.

A referendum was held on September 10, 1967, in which Gibraltar's voters were asked whether they wished to either pass under Spanish sovereignty, or remain under British sovereignty, with institutions of self-government. The vote was overwhelmingly in favour of continuance of British sovereignty, with 12,138 to 44 voting to reject Spanish sovereignty. In response, Spain completely closed the border with Gibraltar and severed all communication links.

The border with Spain was partially reopened in 1982, and fully reopened in 1985 after Spain's accession into the European Community. Joint talks on the future of the Rock held between Spain and the United Kingdom have occurred since the late 1980s, with various proposals for joint sovereignty discussed. However, another referendum organised in Gibraltar rejected the idea of joint sovereignty by 17,900 (98.97%) votes to 187 (1.03%).

The British Government restated that, in accordance with the preamble of the constitution of Gibraltar, the "UK will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their freely and democratically expressed wishes."

Source of historical content: Wikipedia.