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| Gibraltar International Airport |
In 2013, the governing Popular Party is set to take the offensive in Spain's long-running dispute with Gibraltar.
Foreign Minister
José Manuel García-Margallo plans to slowly but steadily dismantle the
'concessions' granted to the British overseas territory by the previous
Socialist government.
The PP feel that these 'concessions' have strengthened The Rock's
sovereignty without Spain receiving the benefits it had expected in
return!
The directive was scheduled to be approved under Cyprus's tenure of the rotating EU presidency but was delayed and will now be handled under Ireland's watch.
The matter will be on the agenda at the next meeting of EU transport ministers.
The veto on Gibraltar's airport was lifted in 2006 after a meeting of the Trilateral Forum between Madrid, London and Gibraltar.
The Córdoba Accord of 2006 lifted restrictions on Gibraltar's airport - including a ban on flights over Spanish airspace - in return for the creation of a jointly owned company to provide airport services.
Now the Spanish government wants to return to the pre-2006 status quo.
García-Margallo in December said that the Trilateral Forum would not be pursued by the PP:
"We are not at the table under conditions of equality," the minister said.
taken and edited from the Seaside Gazette
Picardo responds to Margallo’s Gibraltar EU air exclusion plan
Gibraltar Government yesterday issued a swift response to the article in El Pais suggesting that the Spanish Government would be seeking to reverse the application of EU air liberalisation measures to the Rock.
In a statement Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said he will work closely with Britain to hold Spain to its commitments under the 'Cordoba Agreement'.
Mr Picardo further stated that Spain would be taking “a totally retrograde step” with such a course of action, and reneging on the obligations entered into in the 2006 agreement not to exclude Gibraltar airport from EU aviation measures.The Chief Minister said Gibraltar and Britain had both complied with their own obligations, constructing a new air terminal and paying Spanish pensioners respectively, yet Spain now sought to “cherry pick” the benefits and not comply with its commitments under the cross-border diplomatic accord.
Convent Place response
A Gibraltar Government statement said: “Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar notes reports in El Pais newspaper in Spain, quoting unnamed diplomatic sources, suggesting that the Government of the Kingdom of Spain may seek to suspend the application to Gibraltar Airport of forthcoming EU aviation measures.
“Such actions would be a totally retrograde step for Spain to take and would amount to the Spanish Government reneging on the obligations and commitments it entered into as part of the agreements arrived at in Cordoba in 2006. Specifically, the Ministerial Statement on Gibraltar Airport provided (at paragraph 14(iv)) that from 18th September 2006 Spain would “cease to seek the suspension of Gibraltar Airport from any EU Aviation measure not yet adopted.”
“Gibraltar has built a new air terminal next to the frontier fence in order to comply with its obligations under paragraph 6 of the same Ministerial Statement on Gibraltar Airport. The cost to the Gibraltar taxpayer has been approximately £80m.
“As the United Kingdom has made clear in its response to the Foreign Affairs Committee, it has also complied with its obligations under the agreements made in Cordoba in respect of pensioners who had worked in Gibraltar before the closure of the frontier, at a cost to the British taxpayer of some £125m.
(Source: UK Foreign Affairs Committee, Additional Question from the Committee to the FCO; 12 May 2008 - www.parliament.uk.)
“By seeking to benefit from those parts of the Cordoba Agreement which suit it and not comply with certain other obligations, the Government of the Kingdom of Spain would in effect be “cherry picking” from an Agreement to which Spain had agreed in its entirety.
“Her Majesty’s Governments in the UK and Gibraltar will work closely together to hold Spain to its commitments under the Cordoba Agreements.
“Despite the recent insistence by Spanish Foreign Minister Snr Margallo that he will not talk to Gibraltar, HM Government of Gibraltar remains strongly committed to the Trilateral Forum for Dialogue, as the UK Government has already repeatedly stated.”
Gibraltar Chronicle
