June worst month for border queues

Date: 23 June 2014 at 08:21

If monthly statistics are anything to go by, Gibraltar could be gearing itself up for another summer of border queue delays.

June has turned out to be the worst month of the year so far, with a monthly average queuing time of nearly two hours for outgoing traffic. The worst day was Wednesday 11th, where peak queuing time was over five hours. Similar delays were reported on Sunday 15th.

The worst day for Incoming traffic was Saturday, with delays of two hours, and pedestrians suffered the brunt on Monday 9th, with an hour to get into Spain. The increase in delays has coincided with the start of the Tourist season.

GBC | Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation

For a Humanitarian Frontier group joins queues protest march in Seville

Date: 23 June 2014 at 08:26

The Group for a Humanitarian Frontier joined a protest march in Seville on Saturday to raise awareness of what it describes as “the unjustified queues”.

The dignity march in Seville was one of many across Spain to protest against cuts in public services, poverty and inequality. Several thousand participated in the one in Seville, where organisations surrounded the Andalusian Parliament.

GBC | Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation

Ample time for Spain to rehearse it's act and also gather something to offer as bribes


European Commission to visit Gibraltar frontier again next Wednesday

Date: 24 June 2014 at 07:41

The European Commission will be sending a delegation to examine the Gibraltar border next Wednesday. Sources in Brussels have confirmed to GBC that all three Governments – Gibraltar, UK and Spain - have been notified, and that a team of experts on border movement will be examing how the Commission’s recommendations are being implemented.

Last November the Commission preparted a report with recommendations to the United Kingdom and Spain to improve the flow across the border.

The deadline expired over a month ago, and border queues continue in both directions. In fact, as GBC reported yesterday, June has turned out to be the worst month of the year so far, with peak queuing time at over five hours.

Gibraltar completed the work on the recommendations made to it by the European Commission, but the Spanish Government has barely started, apart from an achitect’s drawing of the infrastructural changes planned for the border.

The Gibraltar Government has already written to the European Commission to tell them everything it has done, while also highlighting Spain’s delays in complying. The Chief Minister also raised the issue with Europe Minister, David Liddington, who is expected to visit Gibraltar in the next few weeks.

GBC has now learned that a second visit by the European Commission is planned for next Wednesday. A group of experts will monitor progress on both sides.

GBC | Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation

Gibraltar bites back

Uruguay striker Luis Suarez has lost one of his financial backers after he was banned for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.

Online gambling firm 888poker said it had "decided to terminate its relationship" with "immediate effect".

BBC Sport - Luis Suarez bite: Uruguay striker loses backing of gambling firm

Spanish Activists Remove Concrete Block From Artificial Reef


A group of Spanish activists have managed to remove a concrete block that formed part of the artificial reef that the Government of Gibraltar laid in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters off the runway in July last year in order to protect marine life.

The group, called “The Defense of the Spanish Nation”, used divers, a fishing boat and inflatable buoyancy units to lift the 2000 kilo block off the sea bed. The group’s president, Santiago Abascal, has posted images of the theft on Twitter that appear to show the concrete block in Puente Mayorga. Mr Abascal has also claimed that the Guardia Civil was later ordered to take the block from him.

A spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office called this “an individual act of vandalism” which was not being treated as a violation of sovereignty as no foreign state vessels were involved.

The RGP, which is dealing with the matter, said that they had received a report of theft from the Government and were currently investigating the incident.

Jun 30 - Spanish Activists Remove Concrete Block From Artificial Reef

Somebody knock your block off ?

Government's Budget summary

The country must be doing well.

More pay less tax and other goodies

Gibraltar Chronicle - The Independent Daily First Published 1801

We should send in the SAS.

Make a wonderful exercise to see how many 2000kg blocks they can wander off with compared to the Spanish civvies.

Foreign Affairs Committee report urges the UK to 'get off the fence' and stand up for Gibraltar

Spain’s behaviour towards Gibraltar is unacceptable and it’s time for the British government to get off the fence and take a tougher line. That’s the overriding message of a hard-hitting, 60-page report drawn up by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons and published today. The Committee makes a series of recommendations that include taking Spain to court if necessary, and making the UK’s support for Spanish aims on the international stage - such as the ambition to join the United Nations’ Security Council - dependent on improvements to the situation in Gibraltar. The report castigates the Spanish government for the border delays and the maritime incursions into British Gibraltar Territorial Waters, but it also criticises the UK for its lack of robustness and for how long it takes before delivering diplomatic protests to Spain.

It expresses deep concern about the dramatic increase in maritime incursions in British Gibraltarian Territorial Waters and the “hostile” tactics of some of the vessels that conduct them. While applauding the restraint of British and Gibraltar vessels in their attempt to enforce British sovereignty, it says it’s disappointed by the Foreign Office’s practice of lodging diplomatic protests weeks after the event, thus robbing them of all force. This, it says, gives the impression of an official simply going through the motions.

The FAC report reveals that the protests constitute an “audit trail” that demonstrates the continuous exercise of British sovereignty in BGTW, should the UK ever need to prove this in an international court. But it also expresses concern that in carrying out this policy, the British government focuses more on the long-term need for an audit trail than on the immediate need to register a real protest with the Spanish authorities. Accordingly it recommends that all protests be delivered within a maximum of seven days.

The Spanish Ambassador to London was summoned five times in the last two years to protest over Gibraltar issues. That’s more often than the Ambassadors of Iran, North Korea and Libya and the Committee says it’s “striking” that a strong European and NATO ally should find itself in such company. It wonders whether the high number of summonses is a positive signal that the Foreign Office is taking robust action, or a sign that the measure is not working and is seen by Spain as a mere slap on the wrist. It calls on the British government to reassess the criteria for summoning the Spanish Ambassador and consider doing so more frequently. The Committee reveals that it twice invited the Ambassador to give evidence, but that he only offered a private meeting. The Committee declined, as it wanted all evidence to be on-the-record.

Besides the incursions protests, the UK has also protested another 34 times to Spain in the past three years, mostly over border delays. The Committee has “no doubt” that the border is being used as a means of coercion and says this is unacceptable. It calls on the British government to state publicly that it will take legal action against Spain in the European Court if there is little improvement in the next six months, noting that Spain had no qualms about taking legal action against the UK in 2006 on the Gibraltar Euro vote issue.

The report suggests that the border checks may actually infringe the Schengen Agreement, which only envisages minimum checks when crossing an external border and which requires the Member State to ensure the safety and smooth flow of road traffic. It notes the Gibraltar government’s intention to carry out a consultation exercise on whether Gibraltar should join Schengen and says the UK should support that review. The UK should also pursue a stronger response from the European Commission and encourage further border inspections with the minimum notice of 24 hours that is now possible following a recent change in the Schengen Code rules.

With regard to Spain’s sovereignty claim, the report says it’s undermined by Madrid’s defence of Ceuta and Melilla as being Spanish. It describes Spain’s arguments as “unconvincing” adding that it leaves Spain open to the charge of hypocrisy. The UK should robustly oppose Spanish attempts to use international institutions like the UN to further its claim, and it should revive efforts to remove Gibraltar from the UN list of non self-governing territories.

The Foreign Affairs Committee is critical of the Labour government’s attempt in 2002 to reach a joint sovereignty agreement and says the self-determination guarantee under which the UK will not even enter into a process of sovereignty talks with which the people of Gibraltar are not content should never be abandoned again. The report laments the demise of the Trilateral Process, which it describes as a high water mark in diplomatic progress over Gibraltar, and says the UK should set out what the offer of ad hoc talks made by the Foreign Secretary in 2012 consists of, and how it intends to secure talks before the next election.

It says Spain’s withdrawal from some aspects of the Cordoba Agreement was a significant backward step in relations, and the UK should ensure its EU partners are fully aware that it was the Spanish government that reneged on an agreement negotiated in good faith, under which London has paid over 70 million pounds in pensions to Spanish citizens.

While acknowledging that the UK is in a “difficult position” because 14 million British nationals visit Spain every year and one million live there, the Committee says Spain should not be able to pursue aggressive policies toward Gibraltar without consequences for its relationship with London. It notes Spain’s concerns about tobacco smuggling and the creation of the artificial reef off the runway last summer, but says these do not justify what amounts to a campaign of harassment and intimidation against Gibraltar.

The UK’s approach of consistently trying to de-escalate tensions, the Committee concludes, hasn’t worked, and it’s now time for the British government, with the agreement of the government of Gibraltar, to think again about what measures can be taken to discourage Spain from exerting pressure on the Rock

GBC | Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation

In the wider context of the UK re negotiating its terms of EU membership Cameron needs allies.
Gibraltar will be put to one side and not allowed to influence relations between the UK and Spain or be used by Spain as a weapon against the UK.
As much as the UK, Spain wants th EU to get involved in the issue of uncontrolled immigration from Africa and Asia.
It looks as if Gibraltarians will have to accept the status quo for the time being.

Tio lost it's appeal?

Appeal ??? Not like you to exaggerate Fred

This definition :- the power or ability to attract, interest, amuse, or stimulate the mind or emotions: The game has lost its appeal. that assumes Tio participants have a mind to be stimulated as against fixed dogmatic views.

Personally I cannot see any country having respect for or taking notice of another country that fails to look after it's own citizens.

The UK must be the laughing stock of the world over this situation.

Can't sort out a small problem like Gibraltar and then expect terrorists and insurgents armed to the teeth to quake in their boots when Cameron speaks

Feel better for letting off steam Fred ?

I agree 100% with everything you say.

Cameron is one those 'must please everyone' politicians. He's now got an opportunity to show some metal. Gibraltar would be an excellent starting point to send a strong message to the EU.

Whole article Fred ?

You wouldn't want to be pushing adverse comments off the screen, would you ?