Lidington calls for Spain to publish its letter from the EC

The Minister for Europe has called for Spain to publish its letter from the European Commission following its visit to the Gibraltar frontier. He says this is in the interests of transparency.

http://gbc.gi/news/2824/lidington-ca...er-from-the-ec

I don't know anything about the 'EU Rights Clinic' nor how influential they are but this is what they have said about the EU inspection...

The EC's letter to Gib:-

https://twitter.com/GBCNewsroom/stat...026752/photo/1

https://twitter.com/GBCNewsroom/stat...637505/photo/1

Spain has not published the letter sent to them so it is impossible to look at the whole picture.

Tobacco act modified.

The effect of the declaration is to give customs and police officers the power of stop and search and to direct individuals to leave the new Special Zones which will now extend from the frontier to, and include, the area of the Sundial roundabout on Winston Churchill Avenue.

To anyone who has visited Gib this zone is from the frontier to the first roundabout after crossing the runway.

http://www.chronicle.gi/headlines_details.php?id=31787

Guardia Civil officers opened and searched a British Government diplomatic bag as it was being transported across the border from Gibraltar into Spain

http://www.chronicle.gi/headlines_details.php?id=31803

EU rights lawyer blasts Commission border findings

http://www.chronicle.gi/headlines_details.php?id=31801

Spain has repeatedly insisted that its controls are aimed at tackling smuggling and tax evasion. But data provided in responses to parliamentary questions in Madrid show that they have had little impact in terms of seizures and arrests.

http://www.chronicle.gi/headlines_details.php?id=31794

Spain’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, Miguel Arias Cañete, said Spain would take the UK to the European Court of Justice if the European Commission failed to take action over reclamation works in Gibraltar waters.


Sr Arias said Spain, having complained to the Commission over reclamation projects and the “dumping” of concrete rocks, now expected officials in Brussels to take action.

Spain’s position is that land

reclamation and the creation of artificial reefs are prohibited in EU nature protected zones.

Spain – with the blessing of the EC – has established an EU nature site in British Gibraltar territorial waters.

The Spanish site is not recognised by the UK and overlaps an existing British designation.


During the briefing, Sr Arias repeated the Spanish position that the Treaty of Utrecht gave the UK no rights over the waters surrounding the Rock, an interpretation strongly rejected by Britain.

Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the UK claims three miles of territorial sea around Gibraltar.

http://www.chronicle.gi/headlines_details.php?id=31802

Aerial picture confirms destruction of local seabed by Spanish raking!

Photographs taken by local aerial photographers confirm the serious devastation over many years caused by illegal and wanton raking of Gibraltar’s seabed by Spanish fishermen.

http://www.panorama.gi/localnews/hea...11149&offset=0

could the Spanish turn that round to say how poorly Gib has maintained it ??

I doubt it.

If you do not disturb the seabed it looks after itself.

The damage is caused by the raking.

I used to dive this area many years ago and the seabed looked like a ploughed field where it had been fished.

“The last time a UK diplomatic bag was opened was in Zimbabwe in March 2000.”

Personally I would rate Zimbabwe higher than Spain

http://www.chronicle.gi/headlines_details.php?id=31824

Rate Zimbabwe higher than Spain, so you prefer a dictatorship that murders and imprisons its oponents , Fred I thought better of you.

Looking at the direction in which Rajoy and his sidekicks have been heading lately, it appears they have been taking lessons from Mugabe

should have thought this would have the man with the greyhound emblem shaking with rage.

it was my understanding that such things went by other means.
was this actually a provocative move by HMG to see what happened ?