Community Lecture Series | Dr Joseph Garcia

Friday 20th March 2026 -

10:00 - 11:00

Europa Point Campus: University of Gibraltar

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About this lecture

Gibraltar and Europe – Past, Present and Future

The talk will cover the relationship between Gibraltar and what is now the European Union in a number of distinct phases. The first phase will cover the period before the United Kingdom and Gibraltar joined the European Economic Community as it was then. The second will deal with the period of EU membership leading to Brexit. The third phase will deal with a Gibraltar outside the European Union and with the new treaty relationship. Dr Garcia will argue that Gibraltar has often been at the mercy of external forces which have impacted the relationship with Europe, in particular the raging debate within the UK Conservative Party and obviously the impact of Spain after they joined the club in 1986. It will be a political and historical journey through time – the past, the present and the future.

About the speaker

Dr Joseph Garcia is a historian and politician. He is Deputy Chief Minister of HM Government of Gibraltar since 2011 and Leader of the Liberal Party of Gibraltar. Dr Garcia has a BA (First Hons) in History from the University of Hull and a PhD on the Modern Political and Constitutional Development of Gibraltar. He is the author of “Gibraltar: The making of a People – The Modern Political and Constitutional Development of Gibraltar 1940-1988”. Dr Garcia is Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for European Affairs and for Brexit work, International political lobbying, Gibraltar representative offices abroad, Lands and Government Projects, Civil Aviation and Information.  He chairs the Select Committees on Parliamentary Reform of the Gibraltar Parliament. He led on the contingency planning work in the event of a No Negotiated Outcome (NNO) to the negotiations between the UK and the EU on a future relationship treaty for Gibraltar. He was, at the same time, also a member of the Gibraltar team which participated in the treaty negotiations. Dr Garcia was appointed a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2021 for his services to politics and public service in Gibraltar.

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