MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Spain hassles Gibraltar on UN hazardous waste convention

The Spanish government made the introduction through Ban Ki-moon's office

The European Union is not the only place where Spain punctiliously continues to press its position on Gibraltar as a clause in every international agreement. As recently as November 2013 amendment to the Basel Convention on the control of trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, Spain introduced, via the office of the UN Secretary General, a communication relating to the territorial application by UK to Gibraltar.

 The clause states that the implementation of the Convention, and any amendments, in Gibraltar “cannot be interpreted as recognition of any rights or situations involving matters not included in Article 10 of the Treaty of Utrecht of 13 July 1713, signed by the crowns of Spain and Great Britain.”

The statement circulated to all participating states says that “Gibraltar is a Non-Self-Governing Territory for whose international relations the Government of the United Kingdom is responsible and which is subject to a process of decolonization in accordance with the relevant decisions and resolutions of the General Assembly.”

It also sets out that Gibraltarian authorities are “local in character, and exercise competences exclusively over internal affairs that originate in and are based on the powers allocated to and conferred on them by the United Kingdom, in accordance with its domestic legislation and in its capacity as the sovereign State upon which depends the said Non-Self-Governing Territory.”

Spain argues that “consequently, any involvement by the Gibraltarian authorities in the implementation of the Convention “shall be understood to take place exclusively within the framework of the internal affairs of Gibraltar”.

According to UN documents the procedure envisaged in the arrangements relating to Gibraltar authorities in the context of “Mixed Agreements”, which was agreed by Spain and the United Kingdom on 19 December 2007 together with ‘Agreed Arrangements relating to Gibraltar authorities in the context of European Union and European Community Instruments and Related Treaties, of 19 April 2000’ applies to the hazardous wastes convention.