GIBRALTAR AND THE EU

The name Gibraltar is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name of Jabal- Al Taric, meaning the "mountain of Taric". Gibraltar joined the European Union on 1 January 1973 at the time of the United Kingdom’s accession to the European economic community. It did so under an article of the treaty of Rome, now contained in identical form in the treaty on the functioning of the EU, which applies to “European territories for whose external relations a member state is responsible”.

Gibraltar’s precise status today is that of a British overseas territory. It does not form part of the United Kingdom. This separate status, apart from the UK, is recognised under English law, international law and indeed EU law.

Gibraltar has a written constitution which entered into force on 1 January 2007, replacing the 1969 original. The constitution establishes Gibraltar’s system of governance with its own executive, legislature and judiciary. Her majesty the queen, as queen of Gibraltar, is represented by the governor.

Elections to the Gibraltar parliament take place every four years. The locally elected government, her majesty’s government of Gibraltar, is formed from the majority party in the parliament. The government has executive responsibility for all matters in Gibraltar except for a very limited number of defined matters for which the Governor has responsibility. These include, in particular, external affairs and defence.

The Gibraltar parliament has power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Gibraltar which means that its legislative powers extend to all matters. UK legislation does not apply to Gibraltar.

Upon accession, the Gibraltar parliament enacted the European communities act 1972 for the purpose of giving effect to EU law within our internal legal order. Accordingly, directly applicable EU law takes effect in Gibraltar without any need for further enactment and EU directives take effect only by virtue of their transposition within the laws of Gibraltar.

Consistent with the fact that UK legislation does not apply to Gibraltar, the transposition of an EU directive in the UK does not have any effect in Gibraltar and the Gibraltar parliament is required to pass its own legislation transposing all applicable EU directives in Gibraltar as primary legislation, or in some instances ministers may make national regulations to transpose obligations by secondary legislative means.

Gibraltar, with a population of just under 30,000 inhabitants, is almost certainly the smallest jurisdiction in the EU with an obligation to transpose and implement EU directives.

After making huge investments and restructuring the relevant government departments, on 28 February 2013 for the first time ever Gibraltar is completely up to date in the transposition of all EU directives.

For many years after the introduction of direct elections to the European parliament in 1979, Gibraltar did not form part of the electoral franchise with the result that the European citizens resident in Gibraltar were not allowed to vote in or stand in elections to the European parliament. This injustice was finally challenged by a team of lawyers led by chief legal adviser to the government of Gibraltar. In a seminal judgment delivered in 1999, the grand chamber of the European court of human rights found that Gibraltar’s exclusion from electoral rights to the European parliament was in breach of the European convention of human rights. As a result, a new constituency was created, the “combined region” made up of Gibraltar and the south west of England, for the purposes of elections to the European parliament. Gibraltar took part in the elections for the first time in 2004.

Gibraltar is economically self-sufficient. The principal contributors to Gibraltar’s economic base are financial services, port operations, online gaming and tourism. As an integral part of the EU, Gibraltar’s financial services licensing and regulatory regimes are fully compliant with EU requirements. Gibraltar also has a comprehensive legal framework to fight money laundering in accordance with EU requirements. Moreover, further to an EU state aid investigation into its tax regime, Gibraltar abolished its so-called offshore companies and now operates a uniform corporate tax regime. Gibraltar has entered over 26 tax information exchange agreements, including with many EU member states, and has transposed into its laws EU requirements to the same effect.

Gibraltar has moved to the mainstream of European business. Its membership of the EU forms an integral part of its economic model. Gibraltar plays by the rules in the EU and expects to be treated in the same way.