MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Hammond's Gibraltar visit triggered several hostility actions from Spain

Foreign Secretary Hammond was not allowed to overfly Spain when the one day trip to Gibraltar

Britain's Foreign Secretary's arrival and departure flights into Gibraltar last week were not allowed to overfly Spanish territory and flew over Portugal instead. This was one of several hostility incidents of Spanish officials towards London. The overfly ban was confirmed to Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation by the Convent (Governor's residence in the Rock).

 This was because of a long-standing NATO restriction imposed by Madrid, despite the fact that Spain and the UK are full NATO partners. In effect since 1989, the Spanish authorities have routinely denied military aircraft permission to overfly or land in Spain if their departure point or destination is Gibraltar.

This restriction has been raised in five reports by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, most recently in 2014. In that report, the Committee expressed disappointment that so little progress had been made towards lifting Spain's NATO reservation, which also applies to warships, and called on the British government to actively seek that it be overturned.

Ironically the government's response was presented to Parliament by Philip Hammond himself, then barely two months into his new job as Foreign Secretary. He said this was a deeply regrettable state of affairs between two EU and NATO Allies, and described the Spanish position as “unacceptable”.

In the report Mr Hammond confirmed, however, that the UK had not raised the issue in NATO itself because it believed NATO was not an appropriate forum for raising bilateral disputes. He added that the UK had no plans to change this stance. Two years on, the restriction remains in place and Mr Hammond has been its latest victim.

In a similar spirit acting Spanish Minister for Justice refused to go to a reception hosted by the UK Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, for members of the delegations at last week’s anti-corruption summit in London.

Rafael Catala was protesting the Foreign Secretary’s visit to Gibraltar, deeming the comments he made while here “unnecessary” and “offensive”.

During his visit, Philip Hammond restated Britain’s commitment to stand by Gibraltar and never to enter into sovereignty negotiations against the people’s will. Spain’s caretaker government reiterated its call for bilateral negotiations with the UK.

Likewise a statement from Spain's Foreign Ministry motivated by Hammond's visit. The Spanish Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo, who is now five months into a caretaker role after his party failed to form Government in December’s elections, objected furiously to the Foreign Secretary's visit, and demanded that the UK return to bilateral negotiations over the Rock.

“The colonial situation of Gibraltar is an anachronism…” said Garcia Margallo, citing UN work on decolonisation. “This colonial vestige destroys the national unity and territorial integrity of Spain and is incompatible with UN Resolution 1514 of 1960 on decolonisation.”

The Spanish Government said it had repeated on numerous occasions its desire to engage in bilateral sovereignty talks with Britain in line with UN resolutions. But it had done so “…without obtaining a response to date.”

However the current electoral political scenario in Spain must also be considered. Last May 3 King Felipe VI dissolved parliament and called for fresh elections on Jun26, since the original call results from December 20 only generated months of political paralysis and discord. The ruling conservative Popular Party of Mariano Rajoy, although having obtained most votes last December, they were insufficient to form a coalition government.