Opposition Leader backs amended motion but warns the deal comes at a high price

Although the Opposition has supported the motion as amended, it says it can’t emphasise enough how agonising the process has been. 

GSD Leader Keith Azopardi told Parliament they had hoped for a good, clearly safe and beneficial deal, and instead had been faced with this deal or no deal.  In overall terms, he said, he was unable to say it is the safe and beneficial deal they had hoped for or had wanted.

Keith Azopardi said it had not been a choice between desirables but an unwanted choice which inevitably had to be faced and which in Government they would make the best of.

As context, the Opposition Leader was keen to highlight the alternative- a no-deal. The Agreement, he said, brings benefits but demands high prices in exchange. These include the series of intrusive informational controls or other decision-making powers granted to the EU and Spain, which he said could be abused in future. In exchange for personal freedom, he said, it gives away powers, information and controls in Gibraltar and leaves Gibraltar wide open economically.  

The arrangements entered into in parallel between Gibraltar and the UK, he said, are therefore key, as only Gibraltar can hold its future in its hands.

The Opposition Leader called for a realistic and honest debate without the hyperbole of unprecedented success or victory. 

An example of this, he said, was the Chief Minister’s previous, adamant denial that there would not be Spanish guards in Gibraltar or joint patrols in Gibraltar waters.

Or, Sir Joe Bossano’s statements that no GSLP member would accept a Spanish Official controlling who enters Gibraltar.

The deal being recommended today, he said, was in this aspect, the deal the GSLP Liberals had said they would terminate as unacceptable.

 He noted Gibraltar was different to other member states in that in the case of other member states, there is no sovereignty claim on the territory within which powers will be exercised.

Keith Azopardi said our future depends on a pragmatic relationship with Europe that is safe and beneficial so that we do not return to fragile insularism and an environment that is visible but solitary.  In a post- Brexit world, he said, there is a need to rely on international resilience for global and regional security. 

The termination clause, he said, meant the deal did not bring certainty it should.  The amendments, unanimously passed today, include a second clause giving the People of Gibraltar the right to referendum on the termination.