OLIVE PRESS
The FREE
Vol. 6 Issue 173
www.theolivepress.es
AFTER years of negotiations concerning the future of Gibraltar post-Brexit, an end is now in sight, according to Chief Minister Fabian Picardo. He insisted Gibraltar was ‘within touching distance of a new treaty’ with the EU on Monday. Negotiations for a UK/EU agreement on Gibraltar’s post-Brexit relations have so far seen a staggering EIGHT rounds of talks since October 2021 as huge teams on both sides battled for a solution to the frontier issue. The most substantial part of the negotiations concern the movement of people and goods to and from Spain, which is a member of the Schengen zone. THE SKY In his update DOCTOR to the ALL AREAS House, Picardo COVERED sounded upbeat 4G UNLIMITED w h i l e INTERNET stressing that IDEAL FOR at least STREAMING TV two more rounds ALSO of negoIPTV, tiations SATELLITE TV
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Frontier justice
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HAPPIER TIMES: Gebhardt family with Sombrita
May 18th - May 31st 2022
THE mayor of Malaga has called for a crackdown on stag and hen parties in an attempt to stop the city becoming the ‘new Magaluf’. It follows an increase in complaints from business owners and residents in the city centre about increased noise disturbance from large groups. “The council will not allow Malaga to become an uncontrolled city,” said mayor Francisco de la Torre. He also suggested an unconventional idea to install sound level monitors inside popular tourist accommodation, although it remains unclear how this would actually work. “Anyone who comes to the city has to abide by coexistence regulations and the council will take strong action if they do not,” he said.
EXCLUSIVE By Jorge Hinojosa
knowing they had killed my dog. “It was definitely not an accident, I’m sure, because they shot with a rifle that has a night sight.” As it was too dark she was unable to find the body until the morning, when she went out with her husband, a former safari ranger in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. She reported the incident to Guardia Civil but was unimpressed with their response. “They did absolutely nothing to help… in fact they were really unsympathetic. She continued that the incident had made them decide to leave the country. “We love Spain, but now want to live elsewhere. We cannot live somewhere where animal rights are not protected.” The Olive Press contacted the Guardia Civil, in Adra, but despite confirming the case, insisted they could not ‘investigate further as she has not provided any names’. When pressed on how Jennifer was meant to get names of people who ran away, they refused to comment and put the phone down.
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Party pooper
SHADY DEATH
AN expat couple have slammed police inactivity after their dog was shot dead by hunters. Jennifer and Victor Gebhardt, 67 and 78, are furious that the Guardia Civil are refusing to probe the slaying of their beloved Sombrita. The retired South African couple, who have lived in Almeria for over a decade, are distraught and planning to leave Spain over the incident. The three-year-old Mastein was left whimpering in pain after a hunter fired a trio of shots at them during the evening walk near their village of Guainos Bajos. Chipped and vaccinated, Sombrita (meaning shadow in Spanish) had been running around chasing rabbits and ‘having a really fun time’. “It had been a lovely long walk in the mountains and we were nearly home when I heard the first shot, then the second, then finally the third which hit her,” recalled Jennifer, a former teacher. “I was calling out making sure they knew who we were, but that didn’t stop them. It could have easily been me.” Despite being petrified and wanting to flee, Jennifer tried to identify the hunters in the dark. “I shouted at them to come out, but they vanished obviously
Ahoy!
GIBRALTAR
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Gibraltar on verge of post-Brexit deal with EU says Picardo By George Mathias
would be needed, with the first round likely to be in June. “We are, in effect, touching every single aspect of the basic building blocks of the European Union and considering whether and if so how each of those should apply to Gibraltar going forward,” he said. “That will bring an end, forever, of frontier queues and checks as we know them today.” The news will be welcomed by Gibraltarians and Brits for whom the act of strolling across the border and being casually waved through, has become a distant memory. There have been increasing reports of border issues over the past month, with Spanish police carrying out strict Schengen rule checks for those crossing with British passports. Picardo insisted that Gibraltar’s sovereignty was a red line for negotiations: “As I have said in every statement I have made on this matter in this House, nothing will ever cleave Gibraltar from the United Kingdom. Nothing will
ever rip us from Britain,” he insisted. He also alluded to the fact that the negotiations were unchartered territory: “By seeking mobility of goods and persons we are seeking, in effect, to carve a niche for ourselves in the infrastructure of the EU which cannot in any way threaten the integrity of the single market or the security of the Schengen area.” He concluded: “We are within touching distance of a historic treaty that, if we can get there, will create renewed optimism in the European idea itself.”
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to discuss the ongoing issues at the border as well as post-Brexit treaty negotiations. The meeting was held in London at the end of a two-day session of talks for a UK-EU treaty on the Rock’s relationship with the EU. The British government agreed to hold a formal meeting of the Joint Ministerial Council, a committee which looks at issues relating to relationships with devolved administrations, on the Gibraltar border issue in the coming weeks. Liz Truss wrote online that the UK is ‘steadfast’ in its See page 15 approach to its overseas territory and will ‘always protect the sovereignty of Gibraltar’.
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Meanwhile, Picardo met with UK