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“Dear Islanders, you know how close London is to you and how we appreciate your loyalty to our Commonwealth.” Thus began the letter sent for the Christmas holidays by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the Kelpers, the inhabitants of the Falkland Islands. A letter written to justify a tear that will be difficult to digest. “The European Union – explains Johnson – has been extremely intransigent in excluding our overseas territories from trade negotiations. But fear not, we will never leave you alone. The Brexit agreement has serious consequences for the islands of the South Atlantic, which from January 1 will see a drastic change in the tenor of their trade relations with EU countries.
Outside the Union and without the special status granted to Great Britain the islands will lose the tax benefits they enjoyed and they must pay customs duties for the sale of their products in the common European area. A blow to the local economy, but also to those European companies that operate in the territorial waters of the Falklands, such as the many Spanish fishing boats that take from there, for example, 25% of the squid that is traded each year in the Galician port of Vigo. fishing is vital for the archipelago; the tax collected from the granting of permits to foreign vessels represents half of their tax revenues.
If London is concerned, the rejoicing is instead Argentina, which has never renounced sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, scene of the 1982 blitzkrieg that marked defeat and then the end of the military regime in Buenos Aires. Chancellor Felipe Solà has lobbied his European colleagues in recent months to convince Brussels to exclude the islands from the post-Brexit deal signed with the UK.
Argentina has never renounced the dream of recovering the islands and works in all international forums so that sovereign rights are recognized by eliminating them in London. Political claims and economic interests, since for years the dream of finding large marine oil deposits has been cultivated in the icy waters that surround the archipelago. Argentina’s hope is an increasingly strong commercial isolation on the islands to be able to negotiate, at least, a new status that can encompass its 150-year territorial claims. A utopia, of course, but every little step is celebrated as a great victory. However, 2021 will be a difficult year for the Kelpers, 13,000 kilometers from their homeland and now excluded from the privileged treatment that Europe grants the United Kingdom.
