MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Spain vetoes Gibraltar for data protection and right to privacy convention

Gib is a dependent, non-self governing territory for whose external relations Britain is responsible

Spain has vetoed Gibraltar’s role as interlocutor in a 2001 European Convention of data protection, right to privacy and exchange of data between member states, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

In a note by the Spanish Council of Ministers dated October 30th 2009, Spain justifies its decision by stating that Gibraltar is “a dependent, non-self governing territory for whose external relations Britain is responsible and subject to a process of decolonisation according to resolutions of the UN General Assembly”.

In the expectation that Britain intends to extend the convention to the Rock, Spain argues that the Gibraltar authorities “are local in character and exercise functions related to internal affairs that originate in the distribution of powers carried out by UK as the sovereign state, on which the non-self governing territory in question is dependent on, according to its domestic legislation.”

According to Spain, Gibraltar’s eventual participation in this convention should be understood “exclusively within the framework of Gibraltar’s internal powers”.