ANDALUCIA CALLS ON MADRID TO IMPROVE RELATIONS WITH GIBRALTAR

On Friday I begged the question in Panorama should Gibraltar seek to make common cause with PSOE to pressure the PP Government in Madrid to honour its commitments under the Cordoba Agreement and the Tripartite Forum.

It appears that as I was writing the article the Commission of the Presidency and Equality of the Andalucía Government was talking about the Foro de Diálogo too. The ruling coalition of PSOE and the IU passed a motion calling on the Spanish Government to normalise relations with our Government and to reactivate the Forum of Dialogue for the mutual benefit of Madrid and Gibraltar. It will come as no great surprise to learn that the Partido Popular representatives on the Commission voted against the first part of the motion but not all of it.

The motion was presented by PSOE. The socialists received the backing of the far left Izquierda Unida but some of the motion was passed unanimously with the support of the PP.

It was like back to the good old days of socialist rule in Spain when they promised to make the border a pleasurable and easy place to pass through. Not only did those pigs never fly they didn’t even make it on to the runway. Still we should be happy that the Commission wants to see improvements to benefit both Gibraltarians and those in the Campo, to study the situation of the Spanish workers in Gibraltar, and to increase the coverage given to Gibraltar, the Campo and Ceuta affairs on the Andalucía broadcaster RTPA.

The socialists didn’t hold their punches. Speaking for the motion Rocío Arrabal who represents Algeciras for PSOE stated: “since the arrival of the PP in the Moncloa the relations of coexistence with Gibraltar have deteriorated significantly. The Government of the nation has forgotten permanently that more than 5,000 (Spanish) workers ply their trade in Gibraltar”.

The PSOE MP from across the bay went on to criticise the Spanish Government for announcing earlier this year “the end of the tripartite forum for dialogue on Gibraltar.” Arrabal pointed out that many advances had taken place since its inception for the people of Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar including “the revaluation of pensions for workers in Gibraltar, the joint use of the airport or the opening of the Instituto Cervantes in Gibraltar”.

Another voice from across the bay then spoke up in the form of PP MP Jacinto Muñoz. Well I am sure I don’t have to tell you what Jacinto said but just for the record it included the fact that the arrival of the PP Government has meant that relations will be “bilateral” between Spain and the United Kingdom because Gibraltar “is not a sovereign State with voice and vote”. He went on to argue the Tripartite Forum had produced “damaging” consequences for Spain and added that under the PP government there would be no “submission” to Gibraltar as there had been from Socialist governments.

The IU view expressed by Alba Doblas was that every time there is a PP government in Spain relations with Gibraltar take a step back. Don’t we know it. Doblas called for collaboration and not confrontation.

So there we have it. It seems both the socialists and the IU are holding the PP government to account for Rajoy’s confrontational politics with Gibraltar. PSOE also seems intent on defending the Cordoba Agreement and the Tripartite Process. Which brings me back to my question of Friday – should we do likewise?

I leave the final word today to José Carracao who up to the last election was a PSOE Senator with a special role in Gibraltar affairs. A former mayor of Jimena and president of the Campo de Gibraltar town halls he still holds major influence in PSOE. He told me: “Demuestra que en España no todos pensamos igual, que hay una parte muy importante que pensamos que tener unas buenas relaciones, amistosas, con nuestros vecinos gibraltareños, son beneficiosas para ambos lados. La propuesta del PSOE, en la que he trabajado, aportando mis conocimientos de la cuestión, apoyada por IU, exige al Gobierno de España el restablecimiento del Diálogo, que ha dado importantes frutos en otros tiempos y que debe seguir dándolos, puesto, que hay cuestiones importantes: accidentes marítimos, tráfico de drogas, terrorismo internacional, por poner sólo unos ejemplos, que nos afecta a ambas comunidades y a los que debemos dar respuesta conjunta.

“Creo que desde el máximo respeto a las posiciones de cada cual, el diálogo es algo por lo que vengo luchando desde siempre y por lo que seguiré luchando. Hago grandes esfuerzos personales por intentar convencer al Gobierno de España, que el camino que ha elegido, de la confrontación no es el adecuado. Vivimos en una zona con una renta de situación magnífica que merece ser explota adecuadamente para que la gente que aquí vivimos podamos progresar de manera adecuada, en paz y en libertad y que se reduzca la alta tasa de desempleo que azota a miles de familias y los hace infelices.

"Espero que el Gobierno de España, tome buena nota de esto que el Parlamento de Andalucía a propuesta del PSOE y apoyada por IU le demanda, en representación de los ciudadanos andaluces."

SORRY ANTONIO THAT ISN’T A HUNGER STRIKE IT’S A SUMMER DIET

Members of the far left Spanish political party, Izquierda Unida, have been demonstrating at the border with Gibraltar with ex-MP Antonio Romero. He is actually on hunger strike in protest at the Rock being one of a number of ‘paraísos fiscales’. I say hunger strike, apparently his refusal to take food lasts for a whole 48 hours. Antonio, that is not a hunger strike, that is a summer diet and you’ll look better on the beach later this week for it.

Of course the protest in La Línea is largely symbolic. The IU needed an offshore location, which our financial centre says it no longer is, and there was Gibraltar on its doorstep. Romero says there are ten ‘paraísos fiscales’ in Europe and 50 around the world.

The former IU MP slammed the government of Mariano Rajoy and the EU for tolerating Gibraltar’s existence. He pointed out that Gibraltar hand 30,000 inhabitants and 80,000 registered companies, the former is certainly true, I am not sure about the latter. He accused Gibraltar and the other offshore centres of being places where black money, cash from crimes and drug trafficking was hidden along with elite sports people stashing their dosh to avoid paying tax.

Far be it from me to add fuel to Romero’s fire but I recently reported here that as far as the majority of Spaniards are concerned the sovereignty issue with Gibraltar and the fishing dispute did not register on the radar of their concerns. With a financial crisis raging that is no surprise: but in such circumstances much mischief could be stirred up by claiming the Rock is bucking the economic malaise purely because it is a ‘paraísos fiscales’. That, however unjustified, may resonate with the señor and señora out on the street without a job or roof over their heads so it is an issue we need to be sensitive too.

The Spanish Government does have a problem with ‘paraísos fiscales’ at this time when it needs every euro it can lay its hands on but the problem isn’t Gibraltar. In an article in March of last year I revealed that Spain’s major companies had 272 subsidiaries located in 27 countries that were consider ‘paraísos fiscales’ but Gibraltar wasn’t one of them.

At this time of economic calamity in Spain its major companies have cracked it. If they earn profits overseas they bank them offshore and do not pay any tax back to Hacienda. However if they find themselves in financial trouble they rush to Madrid for help. Nice business indeed if you can get it.

The renowned Spanish BBVA bank is one of the main sources for banking off-shore at its Cayman Islands offices. Back in 2010 its branches on the islands had 10,575 million euros in deposits, more than its holdings in Argentina where it was the second largest bank.

So not only are Spain’s major companies avoiding paying tax to Madrid by going off-shore they are using a Spanish bank to do it. In 2008 BBVA is reported to have managed 121,295 million euros in off-shore funds. The bank took in funds free from the interference of Hacienda in the Dutch Antilles, the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Jersey, Holland, Panama, Puerto Rico, Switzerland and Luxembourg – but not Gibraltar.

The study in to BBVA was carried out by Carlos Cordero an economist at Sustencia. He stated that the Spanish bank was doing exactly the same as 35 of Spain’s other major companies. I quote: “All the Spanish multinationals use strategies of fiscal elusion. The data of the Agencia Tributaria confirms that the major companies pay, on average, ten per cent tax, which is much less than  a small business, the small self employed workers or the salaried.”

So yes Spain has a problem with ‘paraísos fiscales’ but its problem lies with the BBVA, its multi-nationals and numerous off-shore centres but not with Gibraltar.

THE CENTRE LEFT REVIVAL: IT STARTED HERE

Social Europe: is it worth fighting for? That was the theme of the Fabian Society conference held in London in February. In her keynote speech Labour’s Shadow Europe Minister Emma Reynolds stated: “The presidential election in France in May presents a great opportunity for Francois Hollande to spark a revival of the centre left in Europe. Only then will social democrats have the chance to start shaping the debate about Social Europe and return Europe back to growth and prosperity.”

Well the two rounds of the French Presidential election have come and gone and indeed Hollande has emerged triumphant. It is understandable that because of the stature of the French Presidency this victory is seen as the great beacon of revival those on the progressive left have been seeking. However in truth the revival started here in Gibraltar in December and has since taken in Andalucía and now France.

In December the voters of Gibraltar returned a GSLP led coalition with the Liberals, the sort of progressive alliance many in the British Labour Party have only dreamed of. Ousted was a centre right administration that had ruled Gibraltar for nearly 16 years. I use the term ruled deliberately because the GSD didn’t govern for the people but ruled for its elite.

In came Fabian Picardo as Chief Minister, a then 39-year-old winning at the first time of asking: a feat never achieved before in Gibraltar politics. It would be a mistake to believe that the victory of the GSLP only reverberated around the streets of the Rock. It also raised cheers amongst the embattled Labour family in the UK.

When I met with Labour Party officials at the then HQ in Victoria Street close to Parliament in January and February they delighted in telling me of the response generated when they took the news of the GSLP victory to National Executive and other top committee meetings. It was not just greeted with murmurings of approval but cheers and clapping. The GSLP is a sister party of Labour but is also ‘de la familia’: it brought fresh hope to Miliband and his team.

After the drubbing PSOE received in Spain last May at the local and regional elections and then again in November at the general election when a triumphant Rajoy and his arrogant PP cohorts took power, who, yes who would have thought the socialists would have held on to Andalucía in March’s election against all the odds.

The left alliance of PSOE and the Izquierda Unida won 59 seats against the PP’s 50 as the centre right party’s lead in the polls collapse after the briefest honeymoon in political history. So what started in Gibraltar in December crossed into Andalucía in March and in May has moved on to France. The centre left, which I have been arguing all along in the Morning Star and London Progressive Journal never went away, is back and on the march.

In France on Sunday Francois Hollande was elected the next president of France with just under 52 per cent of the vote. He is the first socialist president since Francois Mitterrand was elected in 1995. Nicolas Sarkozy was the first incumbent president not to establish a lead after the first round of voting and also the first since 1981 not to secure a second term.

In his victory speech Hollande said he was “proud to have been capable of giving people hope again” and will honour his pledge to refocus EU efforts away from austerity and on to growth. “Europe is watching us, austerity can no longer be the only option.” Those will be the headlines in the coming days – but don’t forget this much talked about socialist revival started here in Gibraltar.