MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Opposition condemns Spain for Euro vote challenge.

GSLP/Libs has condemned the Spanish Government's decision to open the door to possible legal proceedings against UK over Gibraltar's inclusion in European parliamentary elections.

According to the Madrid daily "El Pais" Spain formally complained to the European Commission last Monday.

The Opposition also recall that during Brussels negotiations in the context of sharing sovereignty, "Peter Hain boasted that one of the early wins for Gibraltar at the start of the talks had been Spain's consent to the UK proceeding by unilaterally changing UK legislation to make provision for Gibraltar to participate in the 2004 European elections."

An Opposition spokesman said: "The article confirms Spanish press speculation shortly after the European Parliamentary (Representation) Act became British law.

Indeed, there were angry reactions from Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee who questioned whether the sovereignty of the British Parliament was being jeopardized if Spain's consent was needed before Parliament could pass such legislation. If Mr Hain was not misleading the House of Commons, then this appears to be one example of what Foreign Minister Josep Pique said at the time - that any concessions made to Gibraltar would be rescinded if there was no final agreement involving sovereignty emerging from the talks."

"El Pais" says that Spain is basing its case on three arguments. Firstly, Madrid objects to the extension of a UK constituency territorially to include Gibraltar, on the basis that the territorial definition for the UK constituencies exists only for the UK and therefore needs to be changed in the EC Act itself. It is well known that London argued for years that it was impossible to enfranchise Gibraltar by changing British law alone, and further argued that the 1976 EC Act could not be changed because Spain would veto it. Indeed, even after the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. Baroness Symons refused to change British law and said that London was pursuing the only option available which was to change the 1976 Act. It makes it difficult for the UK to defend itself against this argument since it is the argument they were using previously.

Nonetheless, the hypocrisy and double-standards of Madrid is evident in that the indications from the UK are that they dropped the attempt to change the EC Act and went instead for national legislation in order to appease Spain who was objecting to the other route."

"Obviously if Spain objects to action by British law and action by changing European law, in practice what they are objecting to is the Gibraltarians being able to vote. Secondly, for reasons of her sovereignty claim, Spain has objected to Gibraltar being combined with a UK region for the purposes of these elections. Madrid thereby makes a distinction between the enfranchisement of the people (which could have been done through postal voting for example) and the recognition of the whole of the territory of Gibraltar as electorally part of the Member State UK. In other words the electoral frontier of the United Kingdom ends at the La Linea frontier. The third argument, as explained in the newspaper, is that certain Commonwealth citizens, who are Gibraltar residents will be able to vote here in European elections even though they are not EU nationals."

"Madrid has made clear that Spain may take the legal action against UK herself if the European Commission refuses to act. It is very rare for a Member State of the European Union to initiate legal action against another Member State. Indeed, this is what Gibraltar and the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons itself have urged the British Government do to when Spain violates the EU rights of Gibraltar. Unlike the Spanish Government, the British Government has chosen not to act." "It is regrettable that once again Gibraltar gets to find out this important information through the Spanish press."