MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

EC recommends UK/Spain “friendly accord” on Gibraltar waters dispute

Spanish diplomatic sources have said that the PSOE Government is willing to offer an agreement on the current dispute over Gibraltar territorial waters that sets sovereignty to one side and concentrates on issues of practical cooperation.

“Confronted with the risk of an environmental catastrophe all available resources should be channelled without concern over who puts up the flag,” the diplomatic sources are quoted by the Madrid daily EL PAIS weekend edition. The article also reports that the European Commission has called on Britain and Spain “to find a friendly accord.”

The Gibraltar Government has lodged a legal claim against the European Commission’s decision to include local territorial waters as a Spanish protected site under EU environmental laws, and upholding the Britishness of these waters.

EL PAIS states that setting up cooperation protocols on environmental issues – with an early warning system – has its difficulties, but would be simpler than collaborating in anti-smuggling and anti-crime operations.

Despite recent incidents at sea, Spanish diplomatic sources say that an informal channel of communication between law enforcement agencies on both sides of the frontier works well. The newspaper reports that when a Guardia Civil patrol boat spots a suspicious vessel heading for Gibraltar waters, it informs its headquarters in Algeciras, which in turn alerts the Gibraltar police.

The aim, continues the newspaper, is to institutionalise this mechanism so that no delinquent can take advantage of the sovereignty dispute to escape the law. Spain already has cooperation agreements in place with France and Portugal to allow its police officers ‘hot pursuit’ on the other side of a national border, without it being considered an invasion.

EL PAIS adds: “The sensitivities related to the Gibraltar question complicate matters. It would have to be decided who would be the competent judge to take a case forward in the case of persons arrested in waters in dispute. Handing over the suspects to the Gibraltar police in waters outside Gibraltar’s port, could be understood as a tacit recognition of their jurisdiction over waters which Spain considers as its own”