The EU Commission's Directorate-General on Environment has ruled that, following complaints received from Spain, it is unable to identify any breach of EU environmental legislation in respect of bunkering activities, the Eastside or Sovereign Bay project and, in particular, the Artificial Reef System in North-West BGTW.
Whilst on a school cruise aboard the MS Devonian in 1964, Alan Russell, who was 15 at the time, visited Gibraltar. He was a pupil at the John Neilston Institution in Paisley, Scotland, and a chance encounter with a kind stranger who gave him a sketch of the Rock has lingered in his memory all these years.
After Wednesday night’s opening ceremony attention turned yesterday to the first full day of competition. Mark Tewkesbury was Gibraltar’s first competitor in action as he took on Othniel Bailey from St Vincent and the Grenadines in the Squash preliminary round. Mark battled and at one stage was 2 – 1 up however he was to lose three sets to two to exit the main singles competition. There were better fortunes for Gibraltar’s Anthony Brindle who won his 1st round match 3 –nil and his currently on court in the 2nd round. Christian Navas, Gibraltar’s 3rd singles competitor, lost his opening match 3 – nil to Cameron Stafford from the Cayman Islands.
Next week Gibraltar will host an Expert Group Meeting on ‘Higher Education for Sustainable Development in the Mediterranean,’ organised by the Ministry for the Environment. The two-day event will see the attendance of over 20 experts from across a spectrum of Mediterranean countries and various United Nations agencies including UNESCO, UNECE and UNEP.
The GSD has said that the Gibraltar Government, and particularly its Chief Minister, “must listen properly before attacking” the Leader of the Opposition adding that the Chief Minister’s twitter account has been “ablaze” in reaction to Mr Feetham’s interview about the power station broadcast on GBC. The GSD says that “amongst the flurry of comments he could not help but also have a dig at his comments regarding the concrete blocks by stating that he does not believe ‘we should be moving any part of the artificial reef in BGTW’, adding that to do so would give up ‘sovereignty, jurisdiction and control.’”
The Gibraltar Bats study, aptly named ‘Gib-Bats’, will be hard at work over this coming weekend with members of its specialist team from the UK arriving in Gibraltar tomorrow.
Gib-Bats is a collaborative study between the Gibraltar Museum, the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society and specialists from the UK, with the backing of the Government of Gibraltar through its Department for the Environment.
Last night the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, was in contact with Algeciras Mayor, Sñr José Ignacio Landaluce, to offer any help from Gibraltar which might have been of assistance. Contact was also established with Junta Vice-President Sñr. Jimenez Barrios.