By
A
B
CO
Mr Bullard
GIBRALTAR: CSCE
Problem
INTAIN DEAD
OF
VOSBCO2/557/
Get/10/CSCE
1. The Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition in Gibraltar
have given the Governor a memorandum setting out the Gibraltarian position on CSCE, and recommending that the British Government
should raise the Gibraltar issue at the meeting in November if
the Spaniards have not implemented the Lisbon agreement by then (paragraph 8 of the memorandum).
Recommendation
2. I recommend that the Governor should be asked to inform the
Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition that the memorandum has received careful study; but that the question of Gibraltar is
best handled in a bilateral context between Britain and Spain. I
submit a draft letter to the Governor. CSCE Unit concur.
Background
3. The memorandum and its five annexes is long and inchoate.
The main Gibraltarian concern evidently is that the Spaniards
might seek to raise Gibraltar in the CSCE meeting, attempting to make capital out of the alleged failure to give reciprocity and full equality of rights to Spanish nationals in Gibraltar, and of the episode over the bus that was to have taken Gibraltarian students to and from a course at San Roque University in the summer until the Spaniards thought better of the idea (Gibraltar telegram No Personal 69).
4.
The CSCE Final Act applies to Gibraltar by virtue of British sovereignty and also by virtue of its 5th introductory paragraph which provides for its geographical scope to apply throughout Europe. As a signatory to the Final Act Spain subscribes to its provisions; however, in 1973, prior to signature, the Spanish delegate entered a formal reservation on Gibraltar.
Argument
5. It seems highly unlikely that the Spaniards will attempt to raise the Gibraltar issue at the meeting. The idea that it
CONFIDENTIAL
/should