§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will clarify Her Majesty's governments's policy over the 1985 Moran proposals on the future of Gibraltar following recent Spanish statements; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HurdWe told the Spanish Government at the last Brussels process meeting in March 1993 that we could not accept the proposals put to Sir Geoffrey Howe by Mr. Moran in 1985,—the "Moran Proposals"—as a basis for talks because of their precondition that sovereignty would be transferred. That position has not changed.
Our commitment to the people of Gibraltar is clearly set out in the preamble to the 1969 constitution. We will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their freely and democratically expressed wishes.