Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and other leaders of the British Overseas Territories have welcomed remarks by the Prime Minister David Cameron that Overseas Territories should not be described as tax havens.
The Gibraltar Government has taken another legislative step toward allowing fishing with certain types of nets in British Gibraltar territorial waters under limited, strictly-controlled conditions, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.
Spain plans to fine bunkering companies operating in Gibraltar waters sums of up to two million Euros and the Finance ministry was planning to ban the sale of petroleum products to the Rock, particularly since they pay no VAT.
Britain will always stand up for Gibraltar and the interests of its people, David Cameron said on Thursday. The prime minister said it was something that mattered to us “very deeply”, as he held a meeting to discuss the border dispute with Spain.
Gibraltar will sidestep an ‘illegal’ Spanish ban on overland cross-border shipments of rock, sand and aggregates by shipping the vital building materials in by sea. The ban was announced at the weekend by the Spanish authorities, which are denying export permission for these commodities and say they are being used to reclaim land in breach of EU environmental rules.
Brussels will determine whether the 70 cement blocks dumped in the Gibraltar bay are legal or not, according to the European Union spokesperson Olivier Bailly who anticipated an EC fact finding mission can be expected next month to visit the controversy area.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Durao Barroso and Spain’s Mariano Rajoy discussed Gibraltar on the phone and agreed that the Commission should dispatch observers to the border “as soon as possible” to examine controls on the movement of people and goods, the EC said in a statement.
Britain rejected a Spanish proposal to hold one-on-one talks over the sovereignty of the contested British overseas territory (BOT) of Gibraltar after Spain issued an appeal for such negotiations to be held as soon as possible.
Gibraltar opposition Leader Daniel Feetham has urged a cooling down of the language in the row with Spain and confirmed that the GSD Opposition would agree to quadripartite talks with Spain so long as the Gibraltar delegation retained its own separate voice, vote and veto.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke on Wednesday to his Spanish peer Jose Garcia Margallo with the commitment of finding a diplomatic solution to the dispute at the Spain/Gibraltar border.