Gibraltar – praag.org

Britain denies resorting to gunboat diplomacy

Britain said Wednesday it was reviewing its military presence off Gibraltar following a lengthy stand-off between the Royal Navy and a Spanish ship, but denied it was resorting to “gunboat diplomacy”.

Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds said he wanted to de-escalate the situation but would not put up with “bullying and intimidation” of the British territory at the mouth of the Mediterranean.

Britain summoned the Spanish ambassador on Tuesday to explain the most serious incursion for months in the waters off Gibraltar, which Spain has long claimed as its own.

A Spanish state oceanographic research ship, backed up by three military Spanish police boats, ignored orders to leave for 22 hours before departing Tuesday, coming within 250 metres (yards) of Gibraltar’s harbour.

Gibraltar’s chief minister Fabian Picardo responded by urging Britain to deploy bigger military ships to deter similar incursions.

“We constantly review as to whether the Royal Navy’s deployment around Gibraltar is accurate. We are reviewing that at this current time as well,” Simmonds told parliament in an emergency debate on the incursion.

He said he wanted a “political solution” to the dispute, adding: “We do not believe that gunboat diplomacy and tit-for-tat escalation is in anyone’s interest.

“Bullying and intimidation, wherever it occurs, in unacceptable and that is what appears to be happening in relation to Gibraltar.”

Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in perpetuity in 1713 but has long argued that it should be returned to Spanish sovereignty, and the territory remains a source of diplomatic tension.

The Foreign Office has recorded a huge surge in the number of incursions into British territorial waters since Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy took office in December 2011, and has also summoned the ambassador three times.

There were demands in the British parliament on Wednesday for the ambassador to be thrown out, calls for “real action”, plus comparisons made with Iran and Spain’s Franco-era dictatorship.

One lawmaker called for the tit-for-tat measure of a special slow queue at London’s Heathrow Airport for Spanish passport holders, in response to Spain’s introduction of stringent border checks to enter Gibraltar in August.

Picardo said he would support anything that would have a “positive deterrent effect”, telling BBC radio: “I have discussed before the possibility of more senior assets from the Royal Navy.”

He said the situation was a long way from shots being fired, but warned of the possibility of misunderstandings resulting from Guardia Civil vessels entering Gibraltar waters.

Such ships “might then find themselves shot at because they are not identified as the vessel of a friendly nation… and they may be mistaken for terrorists”. – stratrisks.com

British warship sets sail for Gibraltar

A British war ship set sail for the Mediterranean on Tuesday amid diplomatic tensions between Britain and Spain over the contested British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The HMS Westminster frigate will dock in Gibraltar as part of a Royal Naval deployment of ten vessels to the Mediterranean and Gulf.

The departure of the ship from Portsmouth, played down by the British and Spanish governments as part of a long planned, routine exercise, has underscored heightened tensions over the territory.

A helicopter carrier also left Portsmouth for Gibraltar on Monday.

Britain has warned Spain it might take legal action to try to force Madrid to abandon tighter controls at the border with Gibraltar in what it called an “unprecedented” step against a European ally.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said the Spanish border checks, imposed after Gibraltar created an artificial reef which Spain said blocked its fishing vessels, were “disproportionate” and “politically motivated”.

Tensions over the rocky outpost at the mouth of the Mediterranean, to which Spain lays claim, have turned into one of the worst rows in years between the two European Union states.

Opposition politicians in Spain have accused Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of using the situation to distract Spaniards from the country’s severe recession and a corruption scandal.

Spain has said it will not back down over the border controls, which it says are a legal and proportionate step to prevent money laundering and the smuggling of tobacco and other products.

If Britain chooses to test whether those restrictions breach EU law on freedom of movement, the case is likely to end up in the European Court of Justice. Judgments there can take years, although special cases can be fast-tracked. – SABC

Gibraltar: UK says Spain is like North Korea

Spain is acting like North Korea and “sabre rattling” the chief minister of Gibraltar has warned in a further escalation of the row over the British territory.

Fabian Picardo accused the Spanish government of behaving like they did during Franco’s regime and vowed that ‘hell will freeze over’ before the authorities in Gibraltar remove a disputed artificial reef created to bar Spanish fishing boats.

Mr Picardo said Spanish foreign minister Jose Garcia-Margallo was being belligerent when he suggested that a 50 euro (£43.40) fee could be imposed on every vehicle entering or leaving the British Mediterranean outpost through its border with Spain.

Today the Foreign Office moved to calm tensions over the British territory by saying the row would be resolved by political means not “disproportionate” measures.

The statement follows the move by Spanish authorities to increase border checks causing delays last weekend and the statement yesterday that a vehicle fee and closing Spanish airspace to Gibraltar flights was being considered.

In an interview with Spanish newspaper ABC published yesterday Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo had suggested that :

Spanish tax authorities could investigate the properties owned by 6,000 Gibraltarians in neighbouring parts of Spain.

– Spanish airspace could be closed to flights en route to Gibraltar.

– Stop concrete and materials used to build an artificial reef being brought over the border.

– Changing the law so online gaming companies in Gibraltar have to use Spanish servers and thus pay tax to Spain.

The suggestions in the article prompted an immediate response from the Foreign Office yesterday who said they were “concerned” by the comments and would “not compromise on our sovereignty over Gibraltar, nor our commitment to its people. We continue to use all necessary measures to safeguard British sovereignty.”

A spokesman made clear that the UK expects Madrid to live up to the commitments it made in the 2006 Cordoba Agreement, which included deals on issues like border crossings and access for flights, as well as establishing a tripartite forum for regular dialogue between Britain, Spain and Gibraltar.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme the chief minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo said: “What we have seen this weekend is sabre-rattling of the sort that we haven’t seen for some time.

“The things that Mr Garcia-Margallo has said are more reminiscent of the type of statement you’d hear from North Korea than from an EU partner.

“We’ve seen it before during Franco’s time during the 1960s but I think all of us hoped that those politics were never going to come back and that the much more enlightened politics of Mr Moratinos (Miguel Angel Moratinos), who was the previous but one foreign minister of Spain, would prevail, which talked about people working together and creating economic benefits for the citizens on both sides of the frontier rather than the belligerence we are seeing now.”

Spain claims sovereignty over the Rock, which stands on the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula but has been a British Overseas Territory since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

But the UK Government has made clear that it will not negotiate over sovereignty as long as Gibraltar’s people want to remain British.

Foreign Secretary William Hague last month phoned Mr Garcia-Margallo to complain about Spain ramping up border checks, which forced drivers to wait for up to seven hours in searing heat.

The Foreign Office yesterday summoned the Spanish ambassador to demand assurances that there would be no repeat of the excessive checks.

David Cameron is “seriously concerned” about events at the Spanish border but proposals for fees or airspace restrictions have not been raised with the UK by the authorities in Madrid, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said.

“Clearly, we remain seriously concerned by the events at the Spain/Gibraltar border,” he said.

“Specifically on this issue of border fees, the Spanish have not raised the prospect of introducing border fees with us. We are seeking an explanation from them regarding reports that they might target Gibraltar with further measures.”

The Government is in “close contact” with the Spanish about the issue, but the spokesman refused to give further details about what the next steps might be.

The Prime Minister last spoke to his counterpart, Mariano Rajoy, about the issue at a European Council in June, before the latest escalation of tensions at the border. – Press Association