MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
EC agrees to send fact-finding mission to investigate Spain controls at Gibraltar border
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. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesIf Gibraltar has broken European laws then it should rectify the situation immediately.
Aug 20th, 2013 - 09:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0However no one in Spain or the EC has clearly shown that any such laws have been broken by Gibraltar.
However it will be interesting if Spain has. They have few options, they are unable to close the border like Franco did and they cannot charge people for crossing it.
As Gibraltar contributes to and provides rougly 15% of the local economy across the border in Spain; it is not Gibraltar that is losing out so far - just Spain.
The deciding factor in this is what Spain cooks up with Argentina, once they do that they are stepping out of the EU family and aligning with an enemy if the UK. Once they do that, Spain will be inviting a whole world of trouble on themselves, which will involve legal action, tourism and the involvement of Morocco and the Catalan and Basque people into the dispute.
Aug 21st, 2013 - 07:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0The ball is in Spain's court.
Don´t worry about The Catalans and Basque. They know Spain very well-
Aug 21st, 2013 - 01:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Let sleeping dogs sleep..you don´t want to awaken them....
If London and other EU countries charge a pollution tax on vehicles..why can´t Spain??!!
3 aussie downpour
Aug 21st, 2013 - 03:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“If London and other EU countries charge a pollution tax on vehicles..why can´t Spain??!!”
Anybody with half-a-brain would immediately recognise that London charges a congestion charge within the borders of the UK, NOT at a border with another country.
No matter what you call it, a fee to enter or leave another EU country is illegal.
But as the Spanish are a bunch of LatAm types why do we expect them to obey the law.
And what do you know about the Catalans and the Basques? FA I would imagine. The sleeping dogs as you so quaintly put it are not asleep. They are waiting for the Spanish to put a foot wrong and they will do what all good guard dogs do: they will bite it off.
There, now that wasn’t too difficult even for you to understand, was it?
*4 You misread my post. The sleeping dogs are not the Catalans but the Spanish nationalists..wake them up and you wish you never had!! The Catalans have already come in contact with them more than once...
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 09:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0Now in reference to your congestion charge. I wish you did some research before mumbling off without knowing what you are saying...A congestion charge is totally legal in the EU NOT A TOLL. So Spain is in its right to impose it...but the Spanish Government has their legal team working on it just in case...
Now that wasn´t so difficult to understand, was it??
www.travelmole.com/news-feature.php?news_id=2007795
@5
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 02:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Spanish Nationalists! Are you for real?
Bunch of fucking pussies from what I can see.
http://www.helpcatalonia.cat/2013/06/a-young-man-stabbed-by-spanish.html
Read the first sentence, second paragraph. yeah, they are really frightening.
Basques and Catalans are more of a match for the government and a bunch of wanabe knife fighters who can't!
You also need to understand what a TOLL is and re-read your post.
You also need to FO back to argieland.
Sunshine
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 04:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“wake them up and you wish you never had” - Are they the same Nationalists that got Hitler to do all the fighting for them e.g Guernica
Liar ©
If Spain is destined to break up, Spanish nationlist can only delay it not prevent it.
Aug 22nd, 2013 - 07:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Some countries just have a shelf life and then eventually parts go their different ways. If Spain's recession continues (which I think it will) then I would say that Catalan has a good chance of voting for independence.
Madrid would have a choice to either go down the route of:
Belgium - devolve as much power as possible
Czechoslovakia - velvet divorce
Yugoslavia - become a rump state like Serbia after scaring off even those that didn't want to leave.
The EU wouldn't allow a Yugoslavia within its borders. And considering that Belgium is probably the next European country to split I would say that such a route would only be a temporary solution.
Seems it leave velvet divorce. If Spain plays its cards right then it will only lose one region.
But no matter what happens, I still can envisage a future where Gibraltar becomes part of Spain.
Not a single one.
8 Anglotino
Aug 23rd, 2013 - 06:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“But no matter what happens, I still can envisage a future where Gibraltar becomes part of Spain.”
Really, I cannot envisage ANY time that Gib will become part of Spain unless the rest of Spain wants Gib to take them over!
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