Brussels, 21/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Josep Pique, and the British, Jack Straw, agreed to reach by the summer of 2002 a "global agreement" over Gibraltar. This agreement will cover all the important issues including those of cooperation and sovereignty of the territory ceded to the United Kingdom by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, they announced in the joint Communiqué, following their meeting on Tuesday in Barcelona. Despite this progress in the talks rekindled last July in the framework of the so-called "Brussels" process, divergences remain over Gibraltar's the right to self-determination. The Communiqué assures that the voice of Gibraltar must be heard. We renew our invitation to Peter Caruana (Chief Minister for Gibraltar) to take part in the up-coming ministerial meetings within the Barcelona process. However, Josep Piqué reaffirmed before the press that the Gibraltar population does not have the right to self-determination, while Jack Straw stated that any agreement over a change of sovereignty in Gibraltar would be submitted to the peoples' consent. The two parties should meet once more at the beginning of 2002, during the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council. The future agreement could resolve the problem of the status of Gibraltar airport, which for several years has blocked the adoption by the EU Council of the Commission proposal of aviation transport (compensation of passengers in the case of overbooking, security checks, "single sky" proposals).