Jul 03 - Defenders Meet With Two Commission Inspectors
Yesterday, the Defenders of Gibraltar together with other Gibraltarian and Spanish groups met with two of the EU Inspectors currently visiting Gibraltar and Spain and were given the opportunity of presenting their views. Anne-Marie Struggles (Chairperson) of DoG spoke and also presented the EU Inspectors with photographs of the problems that continued at the border highlighting the intimidation, harassment and bullying of both Gibraltarian and EU citizens on a daily basis by the Spanish authorities.
A statement from the group continues:
“Dr. Michal Gondek opened the meeting by explaining that in this second visit of the EU Inspectors they wanted to find out what problems were still be experienced at the border. Dr. Gonkek said that he wanted very much to meet with the various groups and to hear their comments.
“He talked about the free movement of workers as a fundamental right in the EU and justifiable restrictions. Their brief was to listen to what we had to say and to take it back to Brussels were it will all be analysed. Christian Bulzomi, EU Inspector, said that what he was interested in today was to find out more about the pictures they had been shown, the long queues and whether there had been any improvement since last year. Again he mentioned that they did not want to deal with the political issues, but to deal with the humanitarian, legal and employment issues of cross border workers. Each group gave their presentation and DoG are very pleased that all the parties represented were able to talk on different issues, but all with the same fundamental problem, the intimidation, harassment and bullying of cross border workers, E.U citizens and Gibraltarians as a whole.”
