MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK to complain Spanish Navy incursion in Gibraltar’s territorial waters

Britain will formally complain to Spain about the recent incursion by a Spanish Navy patrol boat into Gibraltar's territorial waters. The fisheries protection vessel 'Tarifa' entered British waters and deployed a small speedboat to carry out checks on Spanish fishermen off the east side of the Rock, reports The Gibraltar Chronicle.

Although the presence of Spanish vessels is common in this area, this is believed to be the first time in recent history that the Spanish Navy has carried out an operational task within Gibraltar waters.

The Royal Navy's Gibraltar Squadron despatched its own boat to the scene and, although the exact events at sea remain unclear, the Spanish vessels eventually left the area.

On Friday the Foreign & Commonwealth Office confirmed the incident and said it would take appropriate steps. “We are taking this matter seriously,” an F&CO spokesman said.

“The British Government is making representations to the Spanish Government.”

The incident on May 8 came a day after the Gibraltar Government announced it

was taking legal action over a diplomatic row about Gibraltar waters.

The row stems from a decision by Brussels to approve a Spanish request to list most of Gibraltar's territorial sea - and an area of international waters too - as one of Spain's protected sites under EU law.

The British Government has told the European Commission and Spain that it does not recognise the Spanish designation. But despite high-level diplomatic discussions, Britain has so far failed to find an amicable way of reversing the decision.

In the light of that and to safeguard its position, the Gibraltar Government filed a legal case against the European Commission.

Underlying the diplomatic face-off is Madrid's insistence that the waters around Gibraltar are Spanish, even though Britain claims three miles of territorial sea under international law.

Last night, the British Government again publicly dismissed the Spanish position. “The British Government is fully confident about its sovereignty over its Gibraltar territorial waters and will draw this to Spain's attention whenever appropriate,” the F&CO spokesman said.

The Gibraltar Government did not return calls for comment on this story yesterday.

There was no official comment from Spain either, where government bodies in Madrid were closed for a regional public holiday.

The Spanish opposition Popular Party said it would ask Spanish ministers to appear in Parliament to give an account of the incident. The PP MP for Cádiz, José Ignacio Landaluce, told reporters at a press conference that the Royal Navy had expelled a Spanish Navy vessel from “Spanish waters”.

He also recalled a separate incident in which a Gibraltar Squadron boat asked a Guardia Civil vessel to leave Gibraltar waters. Landaluce accused the Spanish Government of betraying Spain's national interests for failing to take a firm stance on the issue of Gibraltar's waters.