Early in 1990 the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Joe Bossano, had a meeting with one of the leaders of the Campo region, just as he had done at the beginning of the previous year. This time his interlocutor was the Chairman of the Association of Councils for the region, José Carracao, the venue was Joe Bossano's official residence, and the main subjects of their talks (held on 9 February) were the possibility of Gibraltar's water being supplied from southern Spain and the use by Gibraltar of the waste tip at Los Barrios when the incinerator on the Rock was out of commission. Mr Bossano was clearly intent on continuing to pursue his plan to collaborate with the Campo region for their mutual benefit but outside the framework of the Brussels Declaration.

However, the major meeting early in the year was the fifth annual encounter between the Spanish and British Foreign Ministers, Francisco Fernández Ordónez and (for the first time) Douglas Hurd, who had replaced Sir Geoffrey Howe following his resignation the previous autumn. Their meeting had been scheduled for December 1989 and finally took place in Madrid on 26 February 1990. The run up to the meeting made it quite clear that there would be no progress on the current bone of contention—the implementation of the airport agreement—because the Chief Minister of Gibraltar had made it plain in an interview published in Europa Sur in January and reported in the Spanish press that he was still firmly opposed to it.