European Commission Executive Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation José Manuel Albares and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, together with the Chief Minister of Gibraltar Fabian Picardo, met in Brussels earlier today.
It is an honour and absolute privilege to present my first budget address in what is our Government’s Third Budget since the General Election of December 2011 in relation to the areas that form part of my ministerial responsibilities namely, Financial Services and Gaming. Mr Speaker, I have always held the view that to be involved in politics there are two fundamental criteria that you require to have, the first of which is a good sense of humour and the second to do the right thing for the right reasons.
A delegation from the European Commission was this morning joined by the Government’s Chief Legal Advisor, Michael Llamas QC, RGP Commissioner Eddie Yome, Collector of Customs John Rodriguez, CEO of the Borders and Coastguards Agency, Deputy Governor Alison MacMillan and Principal Secretary for the Deputy Chief Minister’s Office Caine Sanchez, for an inspection of the recently inaugurated frontier implementations, as suggested by the Commission during their fact finding mission to the Frontier, last September.