Government Welcomes Newest UK Action Against Spain Dispute
The Government welcomes the summoning to the Foreign Office of the Spanish Ambassador to the United Kingdom in order to protest about the actions of a Spanish naval vessel in the proximity of Gibraltar yesterday.
The Government has further welcomed the Prime Minister David Cameron raising Gibraltar with the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, making clear that there must not be a repeat of last summer’s disruption.
A No.6 statement on the matter noted, ‘the reality is that the actions of the Spanish navy, in seeking to interfere with merchant shipping, is totally illegal and designed to damage the economy of Gibraltar by creating uncertainty. The disruption at the border, that Gibraltar continues to endure, is similarly intended to cause a negative economic impact.
‘It will be recalled, that the Single European Sky, the Air Passenger Rights legislation and the EU-Ukraine Aviation agreement are all held up because Spain is objecting to its application to Gibraltar Airport.’
The Acting Chief Minister, Dr Joseph Garcia commented, ‘Since the PP took over in Madrid, Gibraltar has been subject to lengthy queues at the frontier which the EU Commission has described as "unjustified", repeated naval and Guardia Civil incursions and the Spanish Government resiling from the Cordoba Agreement on matters related to Gibraltar airport.
‘It is therefore right that the Ambassador has once again been summoned (as recommended by the Foreign Affairs Committee should be the case in appropriate circumstances) and that the Prime Minister has taken this issue up now, in time to ensure that this summer there is no repeat of the lengthy queues to access and leave Gibraltar that we saw last year.
‘The further summoning of the Ambassador should be a source of acute embarrassment to Spain, given that they are a Nato ally and EU partner who, as the FAC has shown, have had their Ambassador summoned three times more often than the Ambassador of Iran, twice the number of times as the North Korean Ambassador and as many times as that of Syria. The people of Spain need to ask their Government what their aggression against Gibraltar is achieving for Spain or in particular for the people of the Campo de Gibraltar beyond acute diplomatic embarrassment and hardship.’
