The European Parliament has defined Gibraltar as a "colony" – ElSol.com.ar – Diario de Mendoza, Argentina

The plenary of the European Parliament approved Thursday with a large majority (502 votes in favor, 81 against and 29 abstentions) visa waiver United Kingdom and the European Union, with one important feature: he cites Gibraltar as "acolony of the British crown"

After the approval of the document by the European Parliament, this vote confirms its validity, which must now be approved by the governments of the Member States. This new regulation allows British citizens to be exempted if they wish enter the European Union once the Brexit is done, provided that the measure is reciprocal.

The mention of Gibraltar – against which the British government has expressed its discomfort – does not directly imply progress in co-sovereignty over the Rock, but could mark the stage of negotiations between Madrid and London for Brexit.

A semantic obstacle

The treatment of this regulation, urgently needed before the imminence of the Brexit, had been blocked diplomatically two months ago. At the initiative of Spain, a footnote literally introducing in the document: "Gibraltar is a colony of the British crown. There is controversy between Spain and the United Kingdom over the sovereignty of Gibraltar, a territory for which a solution must be found in the light of the relevant resolutions and decisions of the United Nations. "

The British government has "totally inappropriate" this mention, and the same opinion had the negotiator of the reform, the chairman of the relevant parliamentary committee, the British MP Claude Moraes.

His opposition to the approval of the document with this allusion to Gibraltar led him to give up his position of negotiator at the initiative of popular and socialist personalities, which facilitated the task of regulation. finally approved in the expected period.