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.
There was a massive power outage affecting 14 districts earlier this morning. The outage occurred just before 11.00am with the last consumers having power restored by 11.33am. Many Main Street traders had to suspend business during a period when the town centre was packed with cruise passengers and other tourists.
Childline are appealing for support during this Friday’s flag day. A spokesperson said that if they manage to raise £5,000 this amount would be enough to fund their telephone helpline service for around six months, meaning that the charity can help about 300 children in Gibraltar. A spokesperson urged the public: “Please help us on Friday when you see us shaking our collection tins!”
The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has today replied to the letter sent by David Cameron which outlined the UK Government’s concerns about tax avoidance in the UK’s Overseas Territories.
In his reply, Mr Picardo told Mr Cameron that Gibraltar has, “acting in the spirit of partnership with the UK outlined in your White Paper on the Overseas Territories, already undertaken to form part of a group of British jurisdictions setting the standards on tax information exchange and accessibility to information on beneficial ownership.”
“Our economy is booming like hardly any other in the European Union” – these are the words of Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, who has assured that his July Budget will reveal over 5% growth this year, a GDP of £1.1 billion with a surplus of over £400 million growing to a forecast GDP of £1.65 billion in 2014/15.
Gibraltar has matured into its role in Europe, taking great effort to promote a business-friendly environment to quality organisations – in particular financial markets and online gaming, licensing 23 of the world’s best. Gibraltar insurers currently write 10% of the total UK motor market and will become the powerhouse of that industry sector. With ambitions for even higher growth, Gibraltar needs the infrastructure to match, the services and facilities that will help to anchor this vision, and Sunborn Gibraltar, a five star grand yacht hotel is ready to play a pivotal role.