MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
EC fact-finding mission to Gibraltar/Spain arrives next September 25
The European Commission will send a fact-finding mission to the Gibraltar-Spain border on September 25 to assess Spanish customs controls and their impact on freedom of movement. The date for the mission was confirmed on Wednesday following days of wrangling over the scope of its mandate, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesNothing says haste like a. “EU fact finding mission”.
Sep 18th, 2013 - 09:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I'm sure we can expect their report in 2017.
Well at least we can say the traffic flow will be better on the 25th!
Sep 19th, 2013 - 05:09 am - Link - Report abuse 0@1 Anglotino
Sep 19th, 2013 - 06:42 am - Link - Report abuse 0Yup, it's taken them weeks to get a fact finding mission together! Unbelievable. I suppose they were hoping it would all magically go away if they dragged their feet.
However, since the Gibraltarian authorities have been videoing the delays at the border, it shouldn't affect the findings of the mission, regardless if the Spanish suspend their irresponsible acts whilst they are there.
A better way to do it would've been to send the mission anonymously and unannounced, and have them try to cross the border from Spain to Gibraltar so they could really understand the situation from the point of view of the innocent traveller.
I see the EC spokesman Olivier Bailly says on his “twitter feed” they have been monitoring those cameras for weeks which is encouraging.
Sep 19th, 2013 - 07:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0And who suffers, again its the people and mostly Spanish it seems , who rely on Gibraltar for there livelihoods,
Sep 19th, 2013 - 08:59 am - Link - Report abuse 0Madrid should be ashamed of itself but it won’t be,
And we call them allies.
@3 LEPRecon
Sep 19th, 2013 - 09:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0Has to be said that if I were in charge of them then they would have already been down there unannounced and anonymous and then announced that the official delegation would be arriving in a weeks time.
You never know (although you can usually guess), the workings of the EC might not be quite as inept as we give them (dis)credit for...
It is quite funny really. The gestapo, oh sorry, the Guardia Civil will have their best smiles on display and their guns concealed, “what delays” they will say, “we don't know what all the fuss is about”.
Sep 19th, 2013 - 10:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0The Guardia Civil are the most corrupt, violent and hated police force in the EU, their backhanders on the roadside are notorious, especially around Christmas what they stop motorists for fun and demand E100 straight into their back pockets or tell the motorists they can pay twice as much at court. They truly are bastards and the Spanish people hate them.
Somebody needs to explain how and why Spain was able to delay the fact-finding mission. Did the EC have a problem flying into Gibraltar? Afraid that the Spanish might shoot their aircraft down? Let's see. Fly to Gibraltar. View activities from Gibraltar side. If necessary, walk across border flashing EC ID. Quite simple really. Isn't it? But then Barroso is Portuguese. So he's biased. How come it's taken a month? How come Spain was able to delay it? Time to “manufacture” some “evidence” and cover up real evidence? And the “mission” members are from where? They need to be from Northern Europe. Where people are generally honest. No members from Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain. They are all “bent”.
Sep 19th, 2013 - 01:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Could someone tell me.... http://atlas.media.mit.edu/country/flk/
Sep 19th, 2013 - 02:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Is this a misprint ?
In light of present goings on, and the little team Arg/Spain thing, it occured to me that it might be relevant. Falklands - 83% exports to Spain .. what? really ?
That would be lol'able indeed.
If true - threats of economic action against Spain on this forum re;Gibraltar may cease at once.
If not - oh well, lol'd anyway.
9 Vestige
Sep 19th, 2013 - 07:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I just know I am going to regret this but what is lol'able and lol'd?
Her Majesty's Government has some cheek and nerve complaining about the
Sep 19th, 2013 - 07:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0behaviour of the Spanish Police at the frontier and the five hour delays being
unacceptable.The UK has denied freedom of movement to millions os EU citizens
and there families in violation of EU Directive 38/2004 Article 10.I am one of the tens of thousand of British citizens who cannot enter the UK with my TCN wife and
British citizen children without first obtaining an unlawfully demanded visa at the British Consulate Madrid and being forced to wait up to 90 days every six months as they only issue them for six months.Each renewal costs us over Euro 1,000. including Hotel and travel expenses.We would be very happy if we only had to wait
5 hours at the UK border and pay Euro 50.The UK refuses to accept EU family residence cards issued by other EU States in total violation of the Freedom of Movement Directive.The facts and truth are strangers to Her Majesty's Government, propaganda is there preferred option.We are the native British citizens who have been stripped of our rights and turned into second class citizens because of who we choose to marry,just like they did in South Africa under the old white rule.
Chris - lol is an internet acronym meaning 'laugh out loud'.
Sep 19th, 2013 - 11:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Lolable is “Something that is worthy of loling at” (urban dictionary)
lol'd is the past participle of the verb 'to lol'.
Example: Yesterday Vestige lol'd upon learning that approximately 80% of Club-Falklands' exports go to Spain.
@ 3 LEPRecon
Sep 20th, 2013 - 02:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0“Yup, it's taken them weeks to get a fact finding mission together! Unbelievable.”
@ Conqueror
“Somebody needs to explain how and why Spain was able to delay the fact-finding mission.”
Fact is that the EU annual budget is a meager 114 000 000 000 Euro (96 000 000 000 GBP), so they had to spend some time finding the funding ,-)
12 Vestige
Sep 20th, 2013 - 01:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Thanks. :o)
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