On August 20, 2013, the New York Times (
visit link) ran the following story:
"European Commission Steps Into Dispute on GibraltarBy RAPHAEL MINDER
Published: August 19, 2013
MADRID — The European Commission on Monday stepped into a dispute between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar, the British territory at the tip of the Iberian Peninsula, saying that it would soon send inspectors there and warning Madrid not to raise tensions further by charging people for crossing into the territory.
The intervention came as a British warship docked in Gibraltar on Monday morning, part of what the British authorities described as a long-planned military training operation, rather than a show of force aimed at Spain.
Still, the warship, the Westminster, which was escorted by two smaller ships from the Royal Navy, arrived a day after Spanish fishermen confronted British police vessels to protest Gibraltar’s construction of an artificial reef that is limiting their access to the waters off the territory.
Although Spain has regularly challenged Britain’s 300-year-old control of Gibraltar, the territory’s decision to build the reef has heightened tensions considerably. Gibraltar created the reef this month by dumping 70 concrete blocks into the sea in an attempt to prevent overfishing. Spain retaliated by tightening controls at the border, forcing cars to wait for hours to enter or leave the territory. Spain has also said that it may charge 50 euros, or about $67, to cross the border, saying that the additional revenue could help compensate Spanish fishermen for their losses.
On Monday, the European Commission, the executive agency of the European Union, warned Spain that such a border toll would violate European law. But it agreed to send a team of inspectors to Gibraltar, after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain called José Manuel Barroso, the president of the commission, asking it to check Spanish claims that the territory had turned into a hub of money laundering and tobacco trafficking.
On Friday, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain called Mr. Barroso to request that European inspectors be sent to Gibraltar to confirm that the toughened border checks by Spain amounted to a violation of European Union rules on the free movement of people and goods.
In an interview with the BBC on Monday, Fabian Picardo, the head of Gibraltar’s government, played down the significance of the arrival of the British warship. “This was planned quite long before the issues that we’re having to deal with now,” he said.
“I’m certainly very hopeful that common sense is going to start to prevail and we will be able to go back to normality as soon as possible,” he said.
At the same time, he has maintained a defiant stance toward Madrid, telling the BBC recently that “hell will freeze over” before Gibraltar removes the concrete reef. Mr. Picardo also accused the Spanish government of escalating the Gibraltar dispute to divert attention from a scandal over a slush fund that has engulfed Mr. Rajoy and his governing Popular Party.
The Westminster, which left the British port of Portsmouth last Tuesday, was expected to make only a short stop in Gibraltar. A British aircraft carrier, the Illustrious, has also been sailing along the Spanish coast as part of the military training exercise, called Operation Cougar 13.
Spain says that its stricter border checks are an attempt to stop tobacco trafficking out of the territory, where cigarettes are taxed at a much lower rate than in Spain. Jorge Fernández Díaz, Spain’s interior minister, said Friday that Gibraltar could not be “the border of tobacco smuggling,” noting that it had imported 140 million packs of cigarettes last year, even though it has only about 30,000 residents.
Gibraltar — a promontory of 2.6 square miles dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar — remains subject to border checks because Britain is not a signatory to the Schengen Agreement, which eliminated most internal boundaries within Europe and went into effect in 1995. Britain secured control of Gibraltar in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Britain handles Gibraltar’s defense and international relations, but Gibraltar’s government has significant autonomy over trade, taxes and industry issues.
Although Spain’s conservative news media have supported the tough nationalist stance taken by Mr. Rajoy’s center-right government, some commentators have warned that escalating the dispute could prove counterproductive. An editorial this month in El País, Spain’s leading newspaper, said that “a realistic vision” should take account of the fact that any concession from Britain over Gibraltar could also encourage Morocco to revive its claims over Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish enclaves."