Gibraltar fisheries dispute
The rich fishing grounds off the Iberian Peninsula were always trigger the fishing dispute of Gibraltar between Spain and the United Kingdom belonging to Gibraltar .
background
Spain does not recognize the territorial waters of Gibraltar and assumes that these are limited to the port of Gibraltar. All other sea area sees it as a Spanish twelve-mile zone . Gibraltar, on the other hand, regards its own twelve-mile zone as its territorial waters.
fishing
The area around Gibraltar is economically important for Spanish fishermen, because these fishing grounds are particularly rich. Here you will mainly find schools of tuna, also the particularly expensive red tuna and other high-priced fish species.
The administration of the British territory of Gibraltar decreed a ban on net fishing for environmental reasons , relying on its sovereign rights. The Spanish fishermen and the Spanish government, on the other hand, rely on the rights recognized by the EU in 1999 in the waters around Gibraltar.
In July 2012, Spain and Gibraltar agreed on a scientific study of fish stocks. Spain criticized the fact that the results of a study carried out by the Oceanographic Institute in Cadiz had been assessed by nature conservation experts who “did not know the slightest about fishing”.
politics
The status of Gibraltar is a thorn in the side of the Spanish right-wing people's party Partido Popular (PP) in particular . Gibraltar has been an issue again since the PP became the government in 2012. The socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero had previously relied on a dialogue with Gibraltar. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy canceled this again. In dialogue with Gibraltar and the British, Zapatero had managed to allow Spanish fishermen to fish within three nautical miles of the colony.
The United Kingdom emphasizes the strategic importance of Gibraltar to the British Empire.
Incidents
Clashes in May 2012
In May 2012, Gibraltar police boats had a conflict with boats of the paramilitary Guardia Civil . These were the worst incidents of this kind to date. Fishermen from Algeciras , Spain wanted to lay their nets in front of the British crown colony at night. The fishermen were again driven out of Gibraltar by police boats that carried out "aggressive" and "dangerous maneuvers" between the five fishing boats. The fishermen said at the time that they did not want to provoke, but rather to check whether Gibraltar had changed its attitude. The conflict had come to a head when the Guardia Civil escorted the Spanish fishing boats the day before the incident to protect them while the nets were being laid. There was a confrontation and several collisions, which the newspaper Gibraltar Chronicle called "skirmish" at the time. Gibraltar justified its action with the fact that the fishermen were fishing in marine protected areas, in which it is not allowed to fish with nets. Even the British Navy intervened: the Royal Navy asked fishermen and the Civil Guard to leave the territorial waters, otherwise the fisheries agreement with Spain would be terminated.
The then governor called on Spain to revoke claims in the “21 Century before established international courts to assert "instead of looking for a" dangerous confrontation at sea "as in the 18th century. Spain is organizing the conflicts and using the fishermen for it, he accused Spain. Andalusian fishermen also suspected that Gibraltar wanted to evict the fishery in order to gain space for the construction of a luxury port.
Artificial reef conflict 2013
Tensions began in late July 2013 when ships dropped concrete blocks into the water off Gibraltar to build an existing artificial reef. The initiative for the largest artificial reef in Europe was started in 1973 by Eric Shaw of the British Helping Hand Trust . The aim is to create an artificial habitat for marine biodiversity in the Bay of Gibraltar with a series of wrecks .
According to British authorities, Spain had tried to suspend construction. Accordingly, among other things, the Spanish police authority Guardia Civil has illegally penetrated into British territorial waters. Spanish authorities, however, accused Gibraltar of using the concrete blocks to keep Spanish fishing boats away.
The mayor of the southern Spanish city of Algeciras again accused Gibraltar of throwing concrete blocks into Spanish waters and of wanting to hinder the work of Spanish fishermen .
consequences
In an initial reaction to the reef building, Spain tightened controls at the border with Gibraltar, which led to long waiting times there. Great Britain said this was not justified. The British Foreign Office appointed the Spanish ambassador. Gibraltar in turn complained to the EU Commission about Spain's reaction.
At the beginning of August 2013, the dispute over fishing grounds between Spain and Gibraltar escalated. The Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo threatened retaliatory measures in a newspaper interview. A border crossing fee of 50 euros is being considered, which should primarily affect tourists and Gibraltarians working in Spain. The foreign minister also did not want to rule out the possibility of the airspace being closed for machines heading for Gibraltar airport .
The Spanish customs chief, Pilar Jurado, justified the strict border controls with the fact that smuggling across the British-Spanish border had recently increased significantly. Gibraltar is said to have imported 68.5 million cigarette packets between January and June 2013. The products are allegedly smuggled across the border with tax evasion.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.heise.de/tp/news/Gefecht- Zwischen-Spanien-und-Gibraltar- 2025143.html
- ↑ a b Clear words from Madrid , ORF, August 4, 2013.