Apr 02 - Cross Border Group delivers speech to Andalucian Parliament
Yesterday, a member of the Cross Border Group delivered a speech to the Andalucian Parliament in Seville. Estibaliz Menoyo Sanchez delivered the speech below:
Good afternoon Honourable M.P’s, Ladies and Gentlemen. I would like to start by thanking you all on behalf of the Cross border Group for giving us this opportunity to highlight our concerns and ideas to you.
My name is Estibaliz Menoyo Sánchez, I am a Spanish worker in Gibraltar. I commute from my residence in Algeciras to work in Gibraltar on a daily basis. I am a member of the Unite the Union Executive Committee and I am privileged to have been nominated to address you today.
The Cross border Group is composed of Trade Unions and Business Organisations from both Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar (Spain). Its members include Unite the Union, The Gibraltar Teachers Association (N.A.S.U.W.T./G.T.A.), the Gibraltar Government Clerical Assocciation (G.G.C.A.), the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce and the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses (G.F.S.B.) on the Gibraltar side of the border; whilst on the Spanish side it is made up of the Small and Medium Business Association of La Linea (A.P.Y.M.E.L.) and the Trade Unions, Comisiones Obreras (C.C.O.O.) and Unión General de Trabajadores (U.G.T.).
This Group has been formed with the long-term goal of defending the common interests of citizens on both sides of the border. We firmly believe that dialogue and cooperation are essential for the social and economic development of both societies, particularly so given that we are both members of the very same European Union.
Through this declaration, the members of the Cross Border Group wish to express our absolute condemnation of the assault on human rights, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at the frontier between Gibraltar and Spain. This situation is unacceptable between two members of the European Union.
The exaggerated delays to which members of both communities are being subjected to at the border crossing are in direct contravention of the normalised social and economic development that this group pursues. It is for this reason that our first priority and challenge is to achieve a normalization of transit at the frontier.
Around 10,000 Spanish citizens, as well as 2000 citizens from other EU states cross this border in order to get to work on a daily basis. This numbers does not take into account those who go to the rock for leisure or to visit their families. There are also a large number of Gibraltarians who live in Spain or go there frequently to carry out the same activities, as is to be expected of neighbouring towns that share a common history.
For these reasons, the social and economic agents on both sides of the border call upon our governments to carry out actions, which guarantee a free flow of persons and goods in accordance with the rest of the EU.
While we, as a group, support measures taken against the illicit traffic of goods between borders, both here and between any other EU borders, we demand that such measures be adapted to the real situation of the border in question and to the volume of people crossing the Gibraltar/La Linea frontier so that their rights might be upheld.
Businessmen and workers from both sides of the border believe that their European Citizenship Rights are being infringed by the current controls at the border, given that they produce horrendous queues which affect frontier users, the economy of the area and as a consequence, employment in the area.
Turning our attention now to the plight of cross border workers, I would like to highlight how these systematic queues have for a long time now, forced many workers to undergo a shift pattern that can include a 14 hour workday given that they are often forced to queue for periods of at least 6 hours, simply to get in and out of Gibraltar. This makes it impossible for these workers to reconcile their personal and professional lives as they never know at what time they will get back from work, when they leave their homes in the early hours of the morning.
Furthermore, the site at the border where the delays take place does not meet even the most basic standards required to maintain the dignity of any citizen forced to wait there. Pedestrians are forced to stand in an area designated to be an open-air car park, suffering up to 42-degree heat in the summer, with humidity rising to 90% and the strong winds that characterise the straits of Gibraltar. This situation becomes even more dramatic when we turn our eye to the sick, elderly and underage citizens who also have to endure this suffering.
Considering all of the aforementioned circumstances, the organisations, which make up this group, (organisations that normally disagree and are at odds on other issues), have a shared interest in demanding a dignified solution to this problem, a problem generating way too much social and economic damage to a region already suffering the dear consequences of high unemployment.
Of all the actions that this group has taken I would like to highlight our visit to the European Parliament. A visit born of three main initiatives:
1-Firstly, putting the current delays, caused by the border controls, to the EU MP’s.
2-Secondly, placing a petition in the hands of the EU parliament’s petition committee, with the intention of arriving at a common European position with regards to the necessary frontier flow.
3-And finally, an offer to transfer our on-going reports on the frontier flow (including length of delays, number of workers affected etc. to the European Commission.
The truth of the matter is that the implementation of these measures within the European Framework may take a considerable amount of time, and this is why it is of the essence that you, Honourable Ladies and Gentlemen, take action from this Parliament, in order to alleviate the situation being imposed on innocent EU citizens at the Gibraltar-La Linea border.
