Government response

UK response to Council minutes statement on territorial scope

Letters from the UK’s Permanent Representative to the EU to the Secretary General of the Council and the Secretary General of the Commission on UK sovereignty over Gibraltar.

UK and EU flags

The UK’s Permanent Representative to the EU has sent letters to the Secretary General of the Council and the Secretary General of the Commission to recall that the UK has no doubt about the sovereignty of the UK over Gibraltar. In addition, the UK will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their wishes, nor enter into a process of sovereignty negotiations with which Gibraltar is not content.

These letters were sent in response to the letter of 24 November 2018 from the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission to the President of the Government of Spain, and in response to the Statement to the minutes of the European Council (Article 50) meeting on 25 November 2018 on the territorial scope of the future agreements to be concluded between the Union and the United Kingdom. The letters also restates that the UK will negotiate future agreements on behalf of all territories, including Gibraltar, for whose external relations it is responsible.

Published 25 November 2018