GIBRALTAR (AP) – For the chief minister of Gibraltar, the British territory’s post-Brexit future rests on strengthening its ties with the United Kingdom.
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told The Associated Press on Sunday that his goal after Britain leaves the European Union in 2019 is to “cement the relationship with the United Kingdom” in terms of both sovereignty and a commercial relationship.
Picardo said he wants to “establish that bilateral relationship of trade to continue the morning after Brexit as if the single market between Gibraltar and the U.K. seamlessly moved from one moment to the next.”
Gibraltar, a rocky outcrop at the tip of the Iberian Peninsula with 32,000 residents, has strong economic connections with surrounding Spanish regions. In last year’s Brexit vote, 96 percent of Gibraltarians voted for Britain to remain in the EU.
Picardo spoke on the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum when Gibraltar’s inhabitants voted to remain a part of the U.K. and reject Spanish sovereignty.