@Gibraltar
Introduction Gibraltar
Background:
Strategically important, Gibraltar was reluctantly ceded to Great
Britain by Spain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht; the British garrison
was formally declared a colony in 1830. In a referendum held in
1967, Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to remain a British
dependency. Although the current 1969 Constitution for Gibraltar
states that the British government will never allow the people of
Gibraltar to pass under the sovereignty of another state against
their freely and democratically expressed wishes, a series of talks
were held by the UK and Spain between 1997 and 2002 on establishing
temporary joint sovereignty over Gibraltar. In response to these
talks, the Gibraltarian Government set up a referendum in late 2002
in which a majority of the citizens voted overwhelmingly against any
sharing of sovereignty with Spain. Since the referendum, tripartite
talks have been held with Spain, the UK, and Gibraltar, and in
September 2006 a three-way agreement was signed. Spain agreed to
allow airlines other than British to serve Gibraltar, to speed up
customs procedures, and to add more telephone lines into Gibraltar.
Britain agreed to pay pensions to Spaniards who had been employed in
Gibraltar before the border closed in 1969. Spain will be allowed to
open a cultural institute from which the Spanish flag will fly.
Geography Gibraltar
Location:
Southwestern Europe, bordering the Strait of Gibraltar, which links
the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southern
coast of Spain
Geographic coordinates:
36 8 N, 5 21 W
Map references:
Europe
Area:
total: 6.5 sq km
land: 6.5 sq km
water: 0 sq km
Area - comparative:
about 11 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC
Land boundaries: total: 1.2 km border countries: Spain 1.2 km