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6. As regards the revised Declaration needed to meet our Community obligation, the Gibraltar Government have now informed us that they consider it should cover all persons who will become BDTCs by virtue of a connection with Gibraltar. The definition we had been about to submit omitted 8 categories of such persons. There would be considerable resentment in Gibraltar at these omissions since they would discriminate against a comparatively small number of people and appear to be largely a technical defect.
7. In consultation with the Home Office we have concluded that we should recommend a fully comprehensive definition as desired by the Gibraltar Government. We recommend this on the following grounds:-
(a)
Section 5 of BNA 1981 started life as Lord Bethell's proposal to confer British citizenship instead of BDTC on all who are at present CUKCs by connection with Gibraltar. As
finally enacted it falls short of this only in a technical sense since it is the route to British citizenship by the entitlement to registration of all (Gibraltarians) whom the UK includes in its definition of UK national for EC purposes. The new Declaration is consequently of considerably greater significance to the Gibraltarians than the 1972 Declaration which provided no such entitlement, and the Gibraltar lobby in Parliament could rally opposition there (for the reasons in paragraph 6 above) to a definition which excluded individual categories. This would be most unwelcome at a time when dissatisfaction continues to be expressed about the value of BDTC in other contexts such as the Falkland Islands and Hong Kong, and BNA 1981 is not yet in force. Moreover there are no convincing grounds on which the exclusion of the present excluded categories can be defended, nor can we discover whether they were intentionally or unintentionally omitted from the 1972 Declaration. A list of the categories then excluded is at Flag E.
(b) Although the Declaration is to be deposited in EC as a unilateral statement, in order to avoid criticism it should be as close as possible in scope and form to the current Declaration. As to scope, we can in EC say that the numbers of Gibraltar people to be added by the new Declaration are believed to be very small compared with those already covered by the 1972 Declaration. Nor is there any risk of repercussions elsewhere since there are no other dependent territories in Europe and section 5 of BNA 1981 is limited to Gibraltar. to form, the definition now proposed does not define the connection with Gibraltar in precise terms but we can take the line that we assume that our partners will welcome the simplified wording. To meet any demands for a more detailed explanation of the definition's coverage, we have prepared an amplified text (attached) which can be drawn on by UKREP Brussels in answering questions about the definition.
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