2023-10-30 11:58:39
In 2018, Pedro Sanchez assured that he had reached an agreement with the then prime minister of Great Britain, Theresa May, by which it undertook to address the sovereignty of Gibraltar. The President of the Spanish Government even promised that if the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union With the famous Brexit, “the political, legal and geographical relationship of the Rock will pass through Spain.” Obviously, this event has not occurred five years later, although that was to be assumed from the letter to which ABC had exclusive access.
In it, May denied such claims. “The Spanish government asked for it repeatedly, but has not achieved it,” the prime minister later explained in relation to the modification of article 184 of the Treaty of Utrecht, adding a message of tranquility to the citizens of the Rock: «We will always be by your side, we are proud that Gibraltar is British. “Our position regarding its sovereignty has not changed and will not change.”
More than three hundred years of controversy have passed since the signing of the treaty, in which Spain has tried to recover this strategic enclave of 6.8 square kilometers and 31,000 inhabitants, regardless of whether we were in a republic, dictatorship, monarchy or under a government of the PSOE or the PP. In 1720 the King George I of BritainHe sent a first letter to Spain in which he promised to return the Rock “quickly.” Seven years later, there was even a war over Gibraltar in which England won.
«The recess of the Moratinos era regarding Gibraltar has ended»
José Manuel García Margallo
Former Foreign Minister
During the 18th century, Gibraltar was subjected to terrible sieges by different regimes to take control of it. In the most important one, between 1779 and 1783, more than 5,000 Spaniards died, for 1,900 British soldiers. More recently, the then socialist Foreign Minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, assured in 2009 that the claim to the sovereignty of said territory was “inalienable.” And in 2013, his successor, José Manuel García Margallo, responded that “the recess of the Moratinos era regarding Gibraltar has ended.”
Violation of the Treaty of Utrecht
The Neverending Story. But if we stick to what was established in the Treaty of Utrecht, beyond the different controversies and wars between both countries due to the cragit can be established that Great Britain has been blatantly violating some of the points established in 1713 for 300 years. What do these say exactly? What do they establish and why are they not being respected from London?
The famous article [Felipe V], for himself and his heirs and successors, cedes by this Treaty to the Crown of Great Britain the full and entire ownership of the city and castles of Gibraltar, together with its port, defenses and fortresses that belong to it, giving said ownership absolutely so that he may have and enjoy it with full right and forever, without exception or impediment.” However, today the definition of ceded territory is the subject of dispute regarding land, airspace and sea, precisely because the treaty stated that property was ceded “without territorial jurisdiction and without open communication with the surrounding country by land.
This means that, although the United Kingdom has a valid title of sovereignty, the problem of its territorial scope would have to be resolved, since the aforementioned Article X did not establish a border line, nor was a demarcation subsequently made. He said that the city, the castle and the buildings added in 1704 were English, but what about the extensions to the land that were carried out in later years? Spain already showed its opposition to the British presence in the neck of land and objected to the construction of the airport in 1938, since they were outside the demarcation established in Utrecht that year of 1713.
«Abuses and frauds»
To “avoid abuses and fraud in the introduction of goods”, the treaty also established that “communication by sea with the coast of Spain cannot be open and secure at all times.” This isolated Gibraltar by land, which he allowed to supply itself from the sea for its own subsistence, but not to trade with what was obtained. And in times of “great distress”, it allowed its inhabitants to buy food in Spanish territory, but only for their own consumption.
According to this provision, Gibraltar remained isolated until 1985, when, in the context of Spain’s incorporation into the European institutions and the I’LL TAKE, this tried to attract Gibraltarians to positions more favorable to their cause, on the one hand, and to favor the development of the region as a whole, on the other. However, these steps to facilitate exchanges have not produced significant progress towards the goal of recovering the territory. Quite the contrary, since Great Britain, in addition to having consolidated its autonomous political statushas been strengthening the economy of the colony and continues working to convert the rock in the medium term into a business center, contrary to what was agreed in the Treaty of Utrecht.
In recent times, the great obsession of British government has been to establish that the waters surrounding the rock are under English sovereignty, something that Spain does not accept, for the simple reason that in the Treaty only the waters of the port of Gibraltar were ceded. Even so, the last Government of David Cameron, for example, did not miss the opportunity to denounce the alleged violations of those waters by Spanish vessels, encouraged by the “llanitos.” But, according to what was agreed in 1713, such violations have not occurred.
The third Utrecht pact
The third pact established in Utrecht is the most important, since it alluded to the fact that Spain has priority to terminate the cession if Great Britain attempted to “give, sell or alienate in any way the property of Gibraltar.” In this sense, the British Government has already decided to “alienate” its colony. Obviously not to a foreign power, but to the population of the rock through the ambiguous concessions that have been made to them.
On the one hand, the Gibraltarian Constitution of 1969 and, on the other, the reforms adopted in 2006, which introduced the right of self-determination of Gibraltarians, although this was conditioned by “existing treaties”, as Spain demanded. If we paid attention to International right and correctly interpret the article X of the Treaty of Utrechtthe cession of Spain would have ended and it would have to recover sovereign rights over the ceded territory.
We must not forget that the aforementioned article considers this piece of land as a strategic support point without a demographic dimension, so nothing is said about its population. Hence he arranged reversion to Spain if Great Britain abandoned it. This not only prevents the transfer to a third country, but also to an independent Gibraltar, something that has already been endorsed by the United Nations in its resolution 2253 of 1967.
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