28 May
The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo yesterday defended Gibraltar's position on taxation before members of the new TAXE committee of the European Parliament.
He was accompanied by the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia, Attorney General Michael Llamas and Sir Graham Watson. The meeting took place at the request of the Gibraltar Government.
The TAXE Committee was established earlier this year in the wake of the Luxembourg Leaks to look into the issue of tax rulings in different parts of the European Union. It is a temporary committee and the original intention was that it would complete its work in six months. This includes fact-finding visits to different parts of the EU and to countries like Switzerland which is outside the Union.
The Chief Minister answered questions put to him by the spokesmen of the different parliamentary political groups. These centred on Gibraltar's constitutional position in relation to the United Kingdom and in relation to the European Union.
The majority of questions were genuine attempts to obtain information, however, there were a number of irrelevant questions introduced by a Partido Popular MEP which the Chief Minister nonetheless answered.
The Chief Minister took the opportunity to explain Gibraltar's exemplary record in the transposition of EU directives on financial services and went over the Tax Information Exchange Agreements and equivalent arrangements that are already in place. He told the Committee that Gibraltar is a compliant jurisdiction which is fully open and transparent.
The Chairman of the Committee, MEP Alain Lamassoure, thanked the Chief Minister for what he called his "helpful, informative and useful intervention" and emphasised that Gibraltar had attended the TAXE Committee at its own request to voluntarily engage with them on the subjects which they are scrutinising.
The meeting lasted just over an hour.
28-05-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
European annual conference for Gibraltar
May 28, 2015
Minister Balban has announced that the 2015 Association of European Vehicle and Driver Registration Authorities (E-Reg) Annual conference will be hosted in Gibraltar.
As part of Government's initiative to strengthen existing connections between all European Authorities and to make them more comprehensive, effective and generally useful, Government is pleased that the 2015 E-Reg Annual Conference will be hosted in Gibraltar.
E-Reg is a European cooperation made up of all the European Registration Authorities dealing with subjects concerning registration and documentation of vehicles and drivers. The main objective of E-Reg is to bring together all the European Registration Authorities to be able to share knowledge, experience and good practices and also identify, follow and influence European developments and Regulations.
The Minister for Transport, Traffic & Technical Services, Paul Balban, welcomed this initiative and said: "I am proud to announce that from 3 to 5 June 2015 the E-Reg General Meeting & Annual
Conference will take place in Gibraltar. Government is positive that holding this conference here, will further strengthen existing liaison procedures between all European Authorities and Gibraltar making this beneficial not only to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Department but for Gibraltar as a whole."
28-05-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
Memorable day
May 28, 2015
Dear Sir,
Casemates Square was filled last Friday with hundreds of 'veteran' Gibraltarians brought together by the most common and strongest bond in our being, namely the hardships endured away from our homes and successful struggle to return to it, over a span of almost ten years.
It was an emotive day for all culminating in the evacuees' adopted WWII anthem "Llevame donde naci", (Take me back to my birthplace). During Mount Opera's sonorous rendering the entire assembly joined in, lumps rose in 800 throats and many tears of emotion and pride ran down our cheeks.
As memories were recalled, there were a couple of occasions when texts of 1940 official telegrams between the Military authorities on the Rock and the War Office in London drew sharp intakes of breath from many in the audience. Many of us never knew, or had heard, of our parents and grandparents referred to as 'useless mouths' or 'hapless bunch' or being 'too much trouble'.
Especially when hundreds of those 'useless mouths' subsequently served in HM Armed Forces gave their lives for King and country in action and both Japanese and German PO Camps; and our womenfolk played their part in the war effort working in British factories.
Some one in very senior official military circles just four weeks ago asked me was it true that Gibraltarians were resentful of Britain, to which I recall responding 'that in my opinion if this was the case it certainly was not because of the past, but more likely for the present lack of tangible and effective defence of Spain's incessant aggression at the frontier and in BGTW".
Though sadly, having heard the above references to our forefathers for the first time, it may well be that some old timers still harbour such resentment, and could one blame them?
Those two unfortunate episodes aside, the evening was rounded off with a reception at Grand Battery where we all mingled and during refreshments further reminiscences circulated. The climax, apart from the speeches from the visiting dignitaries, was the excellent documentary film about Gibraltar in WWII and the evacuation, with some excellent little seen footage of the massive military presence on the Rock in WWII. I recommend and appeal to GBC that they acquire this film and show it every evening for one whole week, it's most certainly worth repeats.
As Louis Pereira concluded in his memories, 'we cannot forget' and most importantly "we must never allow this chapter in our history to be forgotten or allow ourselves to be divided"! The survival of our nationhood must come first.
See you on the 7th September, Evacuation Commemoration Day, courtesy of Chief Minister Fabian Picardo.
God bless this Rock,
Joe Brugada.
28-05-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
New Gibraltar base in Brussels welcomed
May 28, 2015
Conservative MEPs have welcomed the opening this week of a new office in Brussels to promote the interests of Gibraltar.
Ashley Fox and Julie Girling, who represent the South West of England and Gibraltar in the European Parliament, said the office would give the British Overseas Territory a permanent base in Brussels to maintain links with key contacts in the EU institutions.
Conservative MEPs remain strongly committed to working with the Gibraltar Government to ensure the best deal for Gibraltar and its people in the EU.
In a joint statement Mr Fox and Mrs Girling said: "Gibraltarians have a very clear view of their future. They will not waver in their will to remain British and they expect fair treatment as members of the EU.
"That means prompt and sympathetic action from the Commission when Spain tries to bully them by flouting the rules on free borders or by maritime incursions. It means equal treatment in the implementation of aviation legislation, rather than attempts to isolate Gibraltar and exclude her from the so-called Single Sky package."
"The people of Gibraltar deserve no less. The new office opening on Wednesday and the people working there will help us maintain pressure for fairness.
"Spanish intimidation is unacceptable and harms people on both sides of the border. Gibraltar has repeatedly voted to remain British and we will work tirelessly to defend and promote the interests of Gibraltar in the EU."
28-05-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
Online forms create data protection concern
May 28, 2015
The digitisation of forms for the employment and income tax departments was announced yesterday as part of the Government's push towards greater e-government.
The initiative gives businesses and individuals easy access to government services via the internet while streamlining administrative procedures so as to quicken the process. Data protection will be one of the main issues to be tackled with selective persons being granted universal access to citizens' details.
"This does not mean that businesses and members of the public cannot have face-to-face meetings which will be a service the government departments will always provide," assured Minister for Public Services and Commerce Neil Costa. "The reason we are unveiling this particular project today is because the business community, the Chamber of Commerce and the GFSB in particular have been pressing for the digitisation of forms so that businesses and entrepreneurs can complete their obligations online.
"What we are launching are the forms for the employment and income tax office but over the course of the next few months the other departments will also add their e-forms to the e-portal so that in due course all the forms you can now fill in manually you will be able to fill in electronically."
The move has been made possible by the gradual introduction of the new identity cards, which will provide a digital key into the system and give local citizens to access their details at any time or place from the comfort of their own home or office.
Secure system
At the presentation in the Wessex Lounge at Gibraltar Airport, Charles Santos of the IT Department illustrated that login was conducted through a PIN number and the introduction of the new E-ID card into the card-reader which will be provided to users.
"Once you are signed in you have access to a number of forms," he explained. "We choose the one we want, fill it in with our details and a pdf is produced with a sign-in service to confirm its completion."
IT boss Alex Zapata, who coordinated the creation of the software involved, explained that this sign-in service has the same legal value as a signature in person, with each individual being provided certain forms they can fill in.
"The person who has submitted the form gets a notification that it is being processed while those in the office will be able to download it and put it in their back office systems," said Zapata. "At that point they can deal with the form in the same way as they would with a paper form, before finally archiving it."
Local company Easy Payment Gateway, who work with 150 online gaming and e-commerce companies worldwide, were contracted by the Government to provide an entry-point to well-known payment services like Worldpay.
Founder and CEO Alex Capurro said his company has developed a code to generate all the online forms.
Data Protection
Once the Office of Fair Trading gets the go-ahead in Parliament and opens in June, entrepreneurs will now have one location where their business can be set up, with its online equivalent coming through soon after.
Payments would be able to be done online via the new service through debit or credit card numbers with DPC and Environment Department applications next on the list.
"The online portal raises a spectrum of issues on data protection," said Costa. "The officials of the ETB will be the ones who are tasked daily with dealing with the details of a particular individual. When we talk about cross-departmental access to these details this access would have to be given much more carefully."
28-05-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
