Princess Anne is due to visit Gibraltar in March to inaugurate a new medical centre, a move which does not please the Spanish authorities who describe the visit as ‘inopportune’.
The Princess will reportedly be in Gibraltar for three days, March 4th to March 6th, to inaugurate the Princess Royal Medical Centre. The facility is built on the small isthmus, just one square kilometre, joining the Rock with the Iberian peninsular. And therein lies the rub.
The Spanish authorities consider the isthmus to be illegally occupied by the UK as it was not included in the lands ceded by Spain to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
A new era of improved relations between Gibraltar, Spain and the United Kingdom began in 2004 with the setting up of a tripartite forum to better serve the inhabitants of the Rock and the Campo de Gibraltar. Several useful agreements have resulted from this cooperation, including joint use of the airport, better pensions for Spanish workers in Gibraltar and an improved border crossing.
In 2006, Gibraltar adopted a new constitution which gave it more autonomy at a governmental level, although remaining a sovereign state of the United Kingdom.
The various changes, such as the tripartite forum and the new constitution, were introduced in such a way as to maintain Spain’s right to continue its claim to the territory which was occupied in 1704 by British troops during the Spanish War of Succession and subsequently ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht.