Gibraltar is a dependent territory of the UK with a separate Constitution granted to it by the British Parliament. The Government of Gibraltar exercises self government except in matters of defence, internal security and foreign affairs which are reserved to the UK. Gibraltar laws are promulgated by its own elected parliament (House of Assembly).

Gibraltar entered the EU together with the United Kingdom upon its accession in 1973. It is a European territory for whose external relations a Member State (UK) is responsible and accordingly Article 227(4) of the EC Treaty applies.

Article 28 of the UK Accession Act provides that there shall be certain exceptions from Community measures with respect to Gibraltar i.e. (the CAP, VAT and CCT) the Common Agricultural Policy, Value Added Tax and the Common Customs Tariff do not apply. Subject to these explicit exceptions, all legislation adopted by the Community since 1973 has been applicable to Gibraltar and Gibraltar’s parliament (House of Assembly) has transposed applicable Directives.

Accordingly although Gibraltar is obviously not a separate Member State, since its membership derives as part of the Member State UK, it is none the less a separate legal jurisdiction for the purpose of Government legislation and judicial authority.

The citizens of Gibraltar, although British Dependent Territory Citizens (as opposed to British Citizens), are UK Nationals for Community purposes with all consequential rights and entitlements.