Gibraltar the thorn or the Rock

17 August 2013 Last updated at 15:23

Gibraltar: The thorn in British-Spanish relations

Spain says Gibraltar's artificial reef - which prevents fishing - must be removed

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• Gibraltar row: Tough talking on the Rock
• EU asked to monitor Gibraltar border
• Twitter trolls attack Gibraltar chief

Spain and Britain are still talking tough on the issue of Gibraltar as the dispute over Spanish checks at the border continues. The BBC's Tom Burridge talks to people on the Spanish side and looks at the arguments dividing the two countries.

Basic realpolitik tells you that the dispute over the British territory of Gibraltar should cool down at some point soon.

Britain and Spain are NATO and EU allies. Hundreds of thousands of Brits live in Spain and many more spend their sun-baked holidays here.

Despite the awkward timing of a long-planned deployment of a fleet of British warships and other vessels, it is striking that their first port of call, before Gibraltar, will be mainland Spain.

Gibraltar's chief minister said "hell will freeze over" before the concrete reef is moved

But over the past two weeks, private phone calls followed by public statements on all sides that Britain and Spain are ready to negotiate have only ended in more threats, tougher language and continued long queues for people of all nationalities at the border.

Now both Britain and Spain seem resigned to the idea that the European Commission could be the way to reach some form of consensus.

'Hell would freeze'

In the wake of a legal threat by Britain over what London deems to be excessive border controls, Spain has denied the checks are a product of the dispute.

But the queues only grew, sometimes surpassing five or even six hours, after Gibraltarian authorities put a concrete reef into disputed waters.

The Gibraltarian government said the reef was designed to regenerate marine life.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

We always say that Gibraltar is Spanish - it's like someone telling you that part of your body belongs to someone else”

Jose María RicoSpanish citizen

Spain said it was a unilateral act designed to stop Spanish boats fishing there.

For the dispute to be resolved, Spain's director of foreign policy Ignacio Ibañez told us the reef would have to be removed.

Gibraltar's chief minister Fabian Picardo told us "hell will freeze over before the government of Gibraltar moves any of those blocks".

Spain and Gibraltar's uncompromising red lines over 70 blocks of concrete are part of the dispute, but it has escalated into something bigger.

Spain says the border checks are intended to stop tobacco smuggling

Not a day goes by without the Spanish government talking publicly about the issue of tobacco smuggling across the border.

Now the Spanish interior minister has claimed Gibraltar "imported 140 million packets of cigarettes" last year.

Jorge Fernandez Díaz said it was "obvious that they were not all smoked by the residents of the British colony, nor its visitors or tourists".

He said 725,000 packets were seized by Spanish police at the border last year, 80% of which were hidden under "double-floors" in vehicles.

'Manufactured in Madrid'

But Mr Picardo said authorities in the British territory arrested nearly 300 people last year for possessing more than the legal limit of 100 packets of cigarettes - a crackdown he said was not matched on the Spanish side.

He said the Spanish government was simply using the issue of smuggling to engineer a dispute which did not exist just a few weeks ago.

"This has nothing to do with tobacco smuggling," Mr Picardo said.

"This dispute was manufactured in Madrid."

Gibraltar believes Spain's right-wing Popular Party government wants to widen the row to distract attention from its domestic problems and focus on the issue of the sovereignty of the British territory.

Salvador Blanco says he does not care who holds sovereignty over Gibraltar

But what do Spaniards think?

A 40-minute drive up the coast from the Gibraltar-Spain border is the Andalusian town of Tarifa, which lies just outside the Campo area.

"I don't have anything against the people of Gibraltar, but I do have a problem with their government," says fishmonger Salvador Blanco.

"We have sympathy with the fishermen as our livelihood depends on them," he adds.

But on the issue of Gibraltar's sovereignty, he says he does not care.

"We have the territories of Ceuta and Melilla (Spanish enclaves in northern Africa)," he says.

"It doesn't make any difference to me that Gibraltar is British."

Then we meet 33-year-old Jose María Rico from Madrid, who, like many others at this time of year is on holiday in Tarifa.

'What the heck?'

"We always say that Gibraltar is Spanish," he says.

"It's like someone telling you that part of your body belongs to someone else."

Luis Fernandez does not think Britain should control Gibraltar

Then, on Tarifa's long and windy beach, from which you can almost touch Africa, we bump into Luis Fernandez, who is spending his holiday with friends from England.

"I love the English, but what the heck are they doing here (Gibraltar)?" he asks.

But, he believes the Spanish government is using the dispute as a "smokescreen" to divert attention from a damaging corruption scandal.

"Rather than this [scandal], we have Gibraltar top of the news," he says.

Ironically most of the people we have met in long queues at the border are Spanish.

Between 6,000 and 7,000 people live in the part of Spain known as the "Campo de Gibraltar" just over the border but work in the British territory.

So sovereignty aside, Spaniards, Britons and Gibraltarians who need to cross the border all want the dispute to end.

12 August 2013 Last updated at 15:02

What are the competing claims over Gibraltar?

By Vanessa BarfordBBC News Magazine

Three hundred years after Spain ceded Gibraltar to Great Britain, tensions between the two countries have resurfaced in a dispute apparently over an artificial reef and onerous border searches. The UK has always insisted Gibraltar is rightfully British. The Spanish government maintains the territory should pass back. But what are the details of each side's legal, historical and geographical claims for sovereignty?

The disputed territory
The questions	Spain's view of Gibraltar	The UK's view of Gibraltar
Who's had it longer?	From AD711 to 1462 Gibraltar was under Moorish rule, like most of Spain. Spain (initially Castile) controlled the territory from 1462 to1704. Its political status between 1704 and 1713was that of a territory occupied by allied Anglo-Dutch forces during the War of the Spanish Succession. Gibraltar's sovereign status between 1713 and 1880 was that of a territory taken by right of conquest, but legitimised in the form of a cession to the British (Article X, Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, Appendix I).	Anglo-Dutch forces captured the fortress of Gibraltar in 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession. It was formally ceded to the British in perpetuity under Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The Gibraltar territory was designated a Crown Colony in 1830 and was listed as such by the UN in 1946. In 1964, the Gibraltar Constitution was introduced and promulgated in 1969, stipulating that sovereign status would not be changed without the consent of Gibraltar's people.
What's the geography?
What's the legal position?	Spain believes Gibraltar was taken in the context of a Spanish dynastic dispute and contests UK sovereignty over the entire peninsula. It also insists the cession in the Treaty of Utrecht 1713 did not include the isthmus with the airport on it and territorial waters. Spain cites the UN principle of territorial integrity, through UN Resolution 1514 (XV) - which says "any attempt at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations". It also argues two resolutions passed in the 1960s under the UN Principles of Decolonisation - (2231 (XXI), Question of Gibraltar and 2353 (XXII), Question of Gibraltar), mean territorial integrity takes precedence over Gibraltar's right to self-determination.	The UK notes that Gibraltar was ceded by Spain in the Treaty of Utrecht 1713, giving "the full and entire propriety of the town and castle of Gibraltar, together with the port, fortifications, and forts there unto belonging... forever, without any exception or impediment whatsoever". It cites longevity of occupation, and argues the UN principle of territorial integrity, as per UN Resolution 1514 (XV) does not override theprinciple of self-determination. The same resolution says: "All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status." "Gibraltar is much bigger than it was in 1713 - some of the runway and housing on the west side is built on reclaimed land, and the Treaty says nothing about reclaimed land, or territorial waters," says Dr Chris Grocott, lecturer in economic history at Leicester University.
What about self-determination?	Spain also argues two resolutions passed in the 1960s under the UN Principles of Decolonisation do not recognise Gibraltar's right to self-determination. It says Resolution 2231 focuses on the "interests" and not the "wishes" of the people of Gibraltar. Dr Gerry O'Reilly, a senior lecturer in geography and international affairs at Dublin City University, says up to the 1990s, Spain viewed the population of Gibraltar as "a community artificially created from heterogeneous origins since 1713 by colonial processes" rather than indigenous, and therefore thought it did not fulfil criteria for any form of nationhood that could be interpreted as giving a right to UN "national'" self-determination principles. However, since 2002 Spain has offered the people of Gibraltar the constitutional status of an autonomous region/community within the Spanish state, he says.	There was a referendum in Gibraltar in 1967, which called on both Spain and the UK to take into account the "interests" of the people of Gibraltar. In it 12,138 of the 12,237 voters chose "voluntarily to retain their links with the UK". The referendum was condemned by the UN General Assembly, and not recognised by any international body or state. The UK promulgated the Gibraltar Constitution Order in 1969, in which it was stated that: "Her Majesty's government will never enter into negotiations under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their democratically expressed wishes." Gibraltar's view: In the 2002 sovereignty referendum, voters overwhelmingly rejected a plan to share sovereignty over Gibraltar between the UK and Spain. Gibraltar believes the right of self determination was given to it by the UK in 1960, and that the UN Charter enshrines the right to self-determination of all colonial peoples.
What about Ceuta and Melilla?	Spain says the situation with Ceuta and Melilla is completely different from that of Gibraltar. Both territories are part of Spain itself, not an Overseas Territory like Gibraltar. Both have been in Spanish hands since the 16th Century, centuries before the modern state of Morocco was born. Spain claims them on historical grounds, fornational security reasons and UN territorial integrity of the state principles. It stresses the majority of residents are Spanish. But O'Reilly says any lasting resolution of Spanish and UK sovereignty issues must also take cognizance of the Spanish-Moroccan territorial dispute on the southern shore. For Morocco, resolution of the Anglo-Spanish issue should set a precedent for a resolution of the Moroccan-Spanish sovereignty dispute in relation to the Plazas.	Spain retains five territories in north Africa - Ceuta, Melilla, Penon de Velez de la Gomera, Alhucemas and the Chafarinas Islands. Ceuta and Melilla are the most famous. Both are claimed by Morocco, which has compared the situation to Spain's claim to Gibraltar. Both territories are on the Moroccan coast. The population of both Ceuta and Melilla wish to remain Spanish. Morocco argues that the UN principles of decolonisation must be applied; that Spanish military bases there threaten Moroccan security; and that the UN territorial integrity principles also apply. But, despite the strong parallel, the UK doesn't bring up Ceuta and Melilla to reinforce the case for the continuation of the status quo for Gibraltar.
Are there any other underlying reasons?	Some have suggested Spain is looking to divert attention from its own economic woes, or to use the possible new restrictions to give itself a bargaining chip. Spain has denied this. It has accused Gibraltar of being a corporate tax haven, allowing companies and wealthy individuals to avoid paying millions. Spain also believes the border is being abused and draining Spanish resources. Smuggling - cigarette smuggling in particular - is one bugbear, as is the alleged circumventing of Spanish residency taxes. Fishing rights are another point of contention, with both sides complaining about incursions.	Although Gibraltar is small, it is strategically important, standing at the mouth of the Mediterranean. O'Reilly argues its location on the Strait gives it access to one of the three most vital arteries in the world in terms ofcommercial shipping, oil transportation and military-related transport. The UK's military base has historically been of huge significance - controlling virtually all naval traffic in and out of the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic in WWII. The naval dockyard once dominated the economy. But according to Grocott, Gibraltar is now less militarily significant. Tourism is one of the four sectors that dominate the economy today - with most visitors coming from the UK. Then there's the tax system which has attracted financial services firms.
What do leaders say?	Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy has said he hopes talks with the UK will end the current row over Gibraltar but he's prepared to "take legal measures to defend the interests of Spanish citizens". Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo has declared "the party's over". He threatened to charge motorists 50 euros (£43) for crossing the border, impose flight restrictions and investigate the tax status of 6,000 Gibraltarians who have properties in Spain. On recent occasions new, rigorous border checks have resulted in six-hour queues. There have also been reports that Spain may take the row to the UN.	Prime Minister David Cameron has said he is very clear that the UK "will always stand up for the people of Gibraltar". He said a phone conversation with Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy over the Gibraltar border checks delays row was "constructive", and he had called because of "serious concerns". Gibraltar's view: Gibraltar's chief minister Fabian Picardo has accused Spain of "sabre-rattling like North Korea".
What do commentators say?	ABC, like many Spanish papers, is wary about the arrival of three British warships in Gibraltar, which it calls a "naval base that justifies a colony". The paper notes the strength of the British military presence and Gibraltarian opposition to Spanish actions. El Mundo says that long queues at the border are also hurting people living in the Spanish border town of La Linea, especially those close to the frontier gate. After a "relatively quiet" weekend, it expects more tensions as tourists flock towards Gibraltar and the warships loom on the horizon.	The Financial Times' Kiran Stacey says the row is a reminder of how Britain's remaining colonial outposts can cause friction with allies and headaches in Whitehall. "Gibraltar is unique in its potential to cause strife with an EU ally," it says. It shouldn't get to a stage that it infects all other parts of the bilateral relationship. TheEconomist thinks the latest confrontation will prevent a settlement for yet another generation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23738651

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23617910

Just how British is Gibraltar?

9 August 2013 Last updated at 08:11 BST

Gibraltar is at the centre of continuing diplomatic tension between the UK and Spain. Recent weeks have seen big queues after border checks were stepped up causing major delays for tourists and residents.

There is talk that the Spanish will bring in a new charge on vehicles entering or leaving the British territory.

Its another example of the difficulties in the relationship between the two countries that dates back to 1713 when the peninsula was ceded to the British in a treaty.

Tom Burridge finds out just how British the Gibraltarian feel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23628929