As the first summit between Britain and Spain ended yesterday, residents of Gibraltar, the British colony on the Iberian peninsula, said they knew better than to expect it to produce any answers to the centuries-old sovereignty dispute between the two states.
The summit followed weeks of tension over Gibraltar after what started as a spat over fishing rights around the 6.5 sq km limestone rock escalated into the worst Anglo-Spanish diplomatic row for years.
The Spanish authorities claimed Gibraltar had no right to negotiate with Spanish fishermen. Spain tightened border controls, which led to delays of up several hours for cars leaving the colony.
Spanish and British diplomats expected their governments to agree to disagree over Gibraltar and to leave it to one side to be discussed in the annual Anglo-Spanish bilateral talks on the UK dependent territory which have been rumbling on for more than a decade.
Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in perpetuity by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, with first refusal to Spain if Britain should ever wish to give it up. Spain maintains its sovereignty claim, and has the backing of numerous resolutions of the UN General Assembly calling for the Rock's de-colonisation. But Britain has pledged to retain the colony as long as its 29,000 inhabitants wish to remain British citizens, as guaranteed by Gibraltar's 1969 constitution.
Despite the fact that Gibraltarians are of Genoese, Maltese, Spanish, British and Portuguese extraction and speak their own peculiar brand of Spanish, "Spanglish", their attachment to Britain is unwavering.
After the former Spanish dictator Franco cut off communications with the territory between 1969 and 1985, a generation of Gibraltarians learned to live without Spain. Steve Marin (31), a businessman, says he was brought up with the closed frontier attitude. "If I'm in Spain, I don't feel like I'm in an European state. I feel like I'm still in Franco's era even though it's supposed to be a democracy."
Like many Gibraltarians, Marin wants Gibraltar to be integrated with Britain, an option which Britain has ruled out. The current Gibraltarian government wants the territory to be decolonised, but to retain British sovereignty under a modernised constitution.
Britain has to balance Gibraltarians' wishes with the economic realities of its relations with Spain, to which it exports £7 billion worth of goods annually.
A former garrison town whose military importance has been on the wane for years, Gibraltar joined the EU with Britain, but is excluded from the common customs area and CAP and does not have to pay VAT.
Since Britain started slashing its defence spending in Gibraltar, The Rock has developed its offshore banking sector, port facilities and tourist trade. The colony attracts some five million visitors every year, many stocking up on cut-price tobacco, sunglasses, electrical goods or perfumes along Main Street.
Spain refuses to treat Gibraltar as a normal part of the EU and consistently blocks or vetoes the application of EU directives to it. It also accuses Gibraltar of criminal activities such as tobacco smuggling, money laundering and tax evasion as well as flouting EU directives.
The Spanish foreign ministry's spokesman in Madrid said the recent frontier delays were an effort to let Gibraltarians know that their economy is dependent on the frontier with Spain.
"There is a relationship between the border controls and diplomatic crises," said Mr Joaquin Perez-Villanuevay Tovar. "But they [Gibraltarians] can't expect to have the best of both worlds, to live in the morning in a tax haven which flouts EU rules and enjoy golf in the afternoon in Spain."
Gibraltar's Social Democrat Chief Minister, Mr Peter Caruana, firmly denies Spain's charges and accuses it of spreading purely "politically motivated" lies and propaganda to advance its sovereignty claim. He insists that the colony's financial services centre is the most regulated in the world. While welcoming the good relations between Britain and Spain, he says this must be reflected in better Spanish behaviour towards Gibraltar.