IF MADRID WON’T, PERHAPS LA LÍNEA CAN

We have just celebrated the 30 th anniversary of the re-opening of the frontier with Spain and fittingly on that day our Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, met with the mayor of La Línea, Gemma Araujo.

This is in line with the chief minister’s stated desire to have on-going discussions with the representatives of the border town. It is not clear just what was discussed on Friday other than Araujo raised the claim that Spanish workers were losing their jobs in a discriminatory manner which the chief minister effectively dealt with.

It always struck me that if there was to be a benefit from the Córdoba Accord it should be that the situation at the border crossing should be dragged from third world status to one fitting the frontier between EU member states.

I am sure Gibraltar desperately needed the telephone lines along with other deals under the accord to benefit our companies and institutions. However for Córdoba to have gained universal popularity it needed to give a tangible benefit to the people of Gibraltar and indeed those across the border too.

Sadly that opportunity was wasted and instead all we got was a Cervantes Institute and a Gin Palace of an air terminal which cost an arm and a leg. Gibraltarians were forced to pay for the former Supreme Leader’s vanity but received nothing in return.

The frontier is in the hands of the Guardia Civil and the Policía Nacional so is under the control of the Ministry of the Interior in Madrid. Our government has spoken of introducing more crossing points and having more lanes but if Spain won’t tango we can’t dance. Or can we?

I am sure there is a lot that can be done to improve the border than can be achieved municipally in La Línea. For instance does traffic have to stop every time a pedestrian or a person pushing a bike or riding a motorbike crosses the road? Surely some form of pedestrian access can be created to separate walkers from those on vehicles.

When there is a queue to enter the Rock there is a battle between those vehicles who line up, often for hours, whilst others force their way to the front by pushing in at the last roundabout. Sorry to say but Gibraltarians are amongst the guilty here. More often than not there is no barrier or police officer to stop them doing this.

If the last mayor of La Línea could devise ways of channelling the traffic so it had to pay tolls surely Araujo can find a way of making entering and leaving Gibraltar easier for all.

All this is done to an extent on the Gibraltar side where traffic is regulated so everybody takes their turn with cars and two-wheelers going into their own respective lanes. If the RGP can do it then so can the local police in La Línea.

Of course La Línea is bankrupt so hasn’t the cash to pay its police let alone anything else. However if our chief minister and the mayor are talking of co-operation here would be one place to start. The RGP could work with La Línea’s police to design systems for queuing: our road planning experts could help theirs look at the lane system across the border. If it means we co-fund police or officials to organise the queues it would be a good way to spend our cash. After all it is Gibraltarians, our workers and visitors to the Rock who are currently paying the price for this border fiasco. The same border fiasco is damaging our image, driving away tourists and causing endless frustration for all who have to come in and out. If Madrid can’t or won’t sort it, then perhaps with La Línea’s help we can.

A SPANISH POLITICIAN LIKES US

“Extra, extra, read all about it. A Spanish politician wants good relations with Gibraltar! Read all about it!”

It’s general election time in Andalucía and so generally Spanish politicians from all parties tend to try and outdo each other in remarks or policies knocking Gibraltar. The voters’ minds are always elsewhere but it is a creed of honour amongst politicos that they bash the Rock even if in non-election periods they want to kiss and make up.

However bucking this trend is Pilar González. She is the Partido Andalucista’s candidate for the regional government presidency in the current elections and she has been defending a policy of good relations with Gibraltar.

Even more poignant was the fact that she made her statement in Algeciras. The port town is the fiefdom of Landaluce as both PP mayor and Cádiz MP and as we all know he never has a good word to say about Gibraltar. However he must have choked on his churros and coffee when he read that González had stated on his turf: “it is an essential line of action for the Andalucistas MPs to support convivial relations and being a good neighbour between Gibraltar and the towns of this area, especially La Línea.”

The Partido Andalucista’s No.1 candidate made it clear that the politics of confrontation can bring “negative repercussions” for the people of La Línea and for that reason “responsible politicians” are obliged to ensure there is not any campaign that can prove economically harmful to La Línea. However González defends the slogan “Gibraltar es Andalucía”: well come on you didn’t think it would all be good news did you?

Indeed González supports the sovereignty claim of the Spanish Government but insists it should be carried out within a political position of being a good neighbour to Gibraltar. Rather than employing policies to hit at the Gibraltar Government González believes Madrid and Sevilla should explore how both sides of the border can co-operate and how such measures can be put in to practice.

So ok on her heart Pilar González has engraved “Gibraltar es Andalucía” and I guess “Gibraltar español” but then so has every other mainstream Spanish politician. What marks González out from the others is that she is promoting good relations and being a good neighbour to Gibraltar.

The bad news is that the fragrant Pilar has a snowballs chance in hell of being the next Andalucía president or even an MP. Indeed if the opinion polls prove true her party will not even win one seat. To be the party of Andalucía and not to hold a seat in its parliament – for what will be the second consecutive term – is the ultimate political humiliation. Indeed what is the point of having an Andalucía party if nobody votes for it.

However closer to home the PA does rule in Los Barrios and is supporting the PSOE administration in La Línea. Both are financial and political basket cases but they are also our neighbours. Hence if their party leader promotes being nice to Gibraltar let us not knock it.

GIBRALTAR CARS – A BURNING ISSUE IN LA LINEA

I look from time to time on the Wake Up Gibraltar Facebook page to see what local issues are resonating with members. What caught my eye yesterday was a posting about Gibraltar registered cars being burnt out in La Línea with an accompanying photograph by Bryan Zammit Senior.

Apparently it was one of two cars and as that is the case I am surprised it hasn’t hit the headlines in Europa Sur or the other Campo media. The torching of cars across the border and indeed on the Costa del Sol isn’t sadly an isolated issue. A councillor in San Roque had his car set on fire near his home in Estación San Roque just a week or so ago. I reported on another case in the Cancelada district of Estepona last year and others in Marbella.

In some cases such as the councillor’s it could have been politically motivated. In other such as Estepona and Marbella it was the work of vandals with cars chosen at random. As far as I am aware all of those had Spanish plates.

Certainly security and safety has improved markedly in La Línea compared with 20 years ago when I used to drive through as fast as I could. None the less even in recent years I have reported on too many street attacks by far that have resulted in death or serious injury to the victims. Gibraltarians or residents of the Rock walking to the border after a late night out in La Línea have all too frequently been attacked. I park my car as near to the border as I can and say a silent prayer whenever I get back inside unmolested with the car in good order after an evening out on the Rock.

Are Gibraltarian cars a target in La Línea over and above any others? I simply do not know. It would be interesting to learn the facts surrounding the burnt out cars in Bryan Zammit’s photograph and whether the owners have made official complaints to the police on either side of the border.

The fact is that La Línea is not a normal Spanish town in any meaning of the word. It has close ties with Gibraltar both in the number of people living there who are dependent on the Rock for employment and of course in closer family ties by marriage. Many Gibraltarians and British workers on the Rock live there because they cannot afford the rents locally. GHA patients are treated daily at La Línea’s health service hospital.

On top of all that we have La Línea’s municipal workers who can’t remember the last time they were paid. High jobless numbers, high addiction to drugs, a high number of cross-border cigarettes smugglers, a high number of people with no roofs over their heads. For the latter the town hall has now invoked a special plan because temperatures have plummeted to around minus five. If you are unfortunate enough to be living on streets I would have thought you obviously needed help regardless of the state of the weather. I digress: in short the town is an economic and social basket case.

Given all of that I have never experienced any anti-British or Gibraltarian sentiments. However I would never leave my car parked anywhere in La Línea overnight regardless of its number plate. Nor if I could help it would I walk on the wild side of the border at night and in some areas in daylight either. It’s just the way it is.

DID THE SPANISH AIR TERMINAL CRASH WITH THE TRIPARTITE?

We all have to play the hand we are dealt. Hence for the new Gibraltar Government they are saddled with a vast new air terminal, a large ditch where there is meant to be a traffic tunnel, the commitments of various contracts and probably compensation payments too.

However it could all be for nothing. The prime mover behind the new airport terminal abutting the border was the Tripartite Accord. Caruana agreed to build a new terminal by the border and re-route the traffic for the sole purpose of having a Spanish terminal abutting it and in those days we even spoke fondly of flights from the Rock to Madrid and Barcelona.

Now we have a new Partido Popular government in Madrid and one of its first acts was on relations with Gibraltar. The Tripartite process has been cancelled and the new foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo is not seeking a day out with Picardo and Hague at the top of the Rock but nitty gritty haggling in Brussels with his British counterpart whilst the chief minister sits in the corridor.

Well it’s not going to happen: Britain has been clear enough about that. So is the Spanish airport terminal going to happen either? PSOE made a great song and dance about it having to proceed with the terminal and hence needing La Línea’s land because it was obliged to build it because of its international treaty obligations.

Rajoy and García-Margallo have torn up the Tripartite – Cordoba agreements: they are as dead as the proverbial Dodo. So if you were sitting in Madrid what would you do? You have torn up the accord; you need every euro you can get your hands on; you are going to get tough with Gibraltar and there are no flights from Spain to the Rock. Hence the pretence that Gibraltar’s airport is La Línea’s airport is not worth persevering with. So would you spend millions of euros building a terminal when travellers can do as they do now and walk across the border.

If it was me I’d scrap the plans (if they ever existed because nobody I have spoken to has ever seen them) and have a good belly laugh as the new Gibraltar Government grapples with running a terminal that it is never going to have the passengers to fill it.

I am one of those who believe Gibraltar needed a new terminal but as Dr Joseph Garcia continuously pointed out whilst in Opposition the model to follow was that created at Southend Airport in Essex and not the Caruana Gin Palace. It would have cost millions less and be better geared to meet Gibraltar’s needs.

However Spain may have dealt the Government a good card. Caruana made it clear at a press conference after the 2010 low level trilateral that the airport was a Gibraltarian project and would be operational in the Spring of 2011 whether Spain had its terminal or not.

Of course that simply wasn’t true. The location of the terminal at the border was to give access to the La Línea terminal and in addition there was much talk of how the adjacent freight facility would be alongside with part of it actually located across the border. Although this had many implications on sovereignty, the border and employment technicalities it was seized upon by the Campo de Gibraltar as creating jobs for Spaniards, which indeed it would have.

This is presumably now a dead project along with the La Línea terminal. If that is the case it means the new government can look at the airport purely with regard to the needs of Gibraltar. Any freight element will be inside our side of the fence and the beneficiaries in investment and jobs will be Gibraltarian. Indeed perhaps rather than creating a freight terminal part of it can be housed in the Gin Palace.

SOUTHEND V GIBRALTAR: Projects to make London Southend Airport a fully functioning international gateway by the 2012 Olympics are well underway. A new Control Tower is now operational, as is the new airport railway station. London Southend Airport’s new passenger terminal will be completed in the coming months, as will its runway extension and new Holiday Inn hotel. On landing, passengers with hand luggage will be able to process through to the train station platform in just 15 minutes from the aircraft doors opening. The airport is targeting a security process with a maximum four-minute waiting time. The Stobbart Group has invested £60million on a new control tower with state-of-the art radar, a runway extension, a new terminal building and the railway station. The budget for Gibraltar’s new terminal alone is 67 million euros and rising!

HAS THE CHIEF MINISTER CROSSED THE LINE?

As I have written here in the past about my desire for Gibraltar and La Línea to co-operate it would be rather churlish of me to criticise the chief minister when he proposes just that. However there is co-operation and co-operation and I wonder if he hasn’t crossed a dangerous line.

Let us go back to September 7 when the chief minister visited the mayor of La Línea, Gemma Araujo. He proposed that a logistical centre be created in the border town on land adjacent to the airport terminal which between them would handle freight traffic.

Not surprisingly La Plataforma de la Zona Franca has expressed its satisfaction over Gibraltar’s plans. In a press statement the action group stated: “We understand that the town has as main objective to create employment, so that proposals like this not only would have an impact on La Línea, but in the Campo de Gibraltar”

There are over 300 members of the Zona Franca action group and they have offered their support and collaboration with La Línea town hall to bring this project to fruition. Their statement went on to offer: “to work with the town hall in the creation of a forum of dialogue with all the political groups and where we can search for qualified staff to carry out this project” which it says it has been demanding since the action group was first formed.

Naturally this group wants to see a Zona Franca created in which the logistics centre would be located and it expects Gibraltar to use its benefits. It surmises that the chief minister has made the offer because whilst the new airport terminal occupies a lot of land the Rock lacks the additional space for a logistics centre.

So we get the gist of how this project is viewed from the Spanish side. However if such a project were to proceed there are a number of important questions that need to be asked.

If the action group envisages numerous jobs being created and is talking of searching for the qualified staff it follows it expects them to be found in La Línea and the Campo de Gibraltar. If that is the case will Gibraltarians be excluded from working in the logistics centre? Surely if Gibraltar’s airport is to create jobs then the first people to be offered them should be Gibraltarians.

Again if the logistics centre is located in La Línea and Gibraltarians do work there they will in effect be employed in Spain. Hence their social security and tax will be paid to Madrid and they will be governed by Spanish employment law and not Gibraltarian. What effects will that have on their pension rights and other benefits on the Rock?

There is another area of concern and that involves sovereignty. It was always proposed that there would be a Spanish part of the terminal in La Línea which would house customs and immigration officials. Hence travellers going from the airport directly in to Spain could use this facility rather than run the gauntlet of crossing through the current border post.

However a logistics centre in Spain is something rather different. To operate effectively presumably there has to be open access between the centre, the airport proper and aircraft carrying freight. When freight goes from an aircraft to the centre or visa versa it will cross a sovereign border. In theory the staff transporting the goods or others simply going to and fro therefore should pass through immigration and customs each time because otherwise they are treating the airport and the logistics area as one sovereign area which it is not. So whose sovereignty will prevail, Gibraltar’s or Spain’s or is the airport to be the first location where joint sovereignty becomes a reality.

SPANISH WORKERS’ FURY OVER BORDER CHAOS

There is a theory that if you have to make a complaint it is stronger coming from somebody within an organisation than an outsider. Hence with the current chaos at the Spanish border involving vehicles and motorbikes leaving the Rock a protest from Gibraltar will probably be met with a shrug of the shoulders from Zapatero or Trini, especially as the chief minister has just insinuated she is a liar.

Conversely if the protests come from Spaniards, especially those largely living in the town of La Línea, then the government in Madrid is more likely to take note. After all a general election is fast approaching and PSOE needs every vote it can get.

Of course it comes as no surprise that No.6 has been silent on this issue – but then that is the norm for the Caruana administration when it comes to taking Spain to task. No doubt the chief minister is up to his armpits in the urine to be found in the housing estate lifts and is wondering why all those who have been given accommodation in his new prize developments haven’t all pledged to vote GSD. A real head scratcher that one.

In the meantime the misery at the border continues and whilst No 6 says nowt the Asociación de Trabajadores Españoles en Gibraltar has plenty to say on the matter. Their spokesperson J J Uceda has been in touch to reveal they have denounced the situation both to the Spanish Government’s sub-delegate in the Campo de Gibraltar and also to the PSOE MP Salvador de la Encina.

J J says the protest is both on the part of the Spanish workers in Gibraltar and also all the other visitors to the Rock who have to cross the La Línea frontier. It comes to something when Gibraltarians living in Spain and workers on the Rock have to rely on ASCTEG to protect their interests and rights because the chief minister of Gibraltar will not.

Señor Uceda says the situation is so bad that many Spanish workers have simply abandoned their motorbikes in Gibraltar and walked across the border as they do not want to spend hours trying to get home. He also points out that the Guardia Civil are only operating one channel for cars and another for motorbikes when under the Córdoba Accords there are meant to be three lanes in and three lanes out. J J is to be congratulated on keeping a copy of the Córdoba document to hand because seemingly everybody else has ditched theirs so it may now have acquired collector value.

Of course the airport is Gibraltarian and hence its safety is a matter for the MoD and the Rock’s government. As work progresses painfully slowly on the terminal, which if it is to be used as a backdrop for Caruana’s election photos means the polls will be God knows when, it is left to J J to point to the safety aspects caused by the traffic tailbacks. If an aircraft has to make an emergency landing at the Rock it could well be that cars, motorbikes or indeed pedestrians are strung out along the width of its runway without any chance of scrabbling to safety.

It comes better from Spaniards to point out to the powers that be in Madrid that they are operating a third world frontier at La Línea and whilst it brings inconvenience to Gibraltarians, Lineneses, Britons and other nationals alike – the sole shame belongs to Spain. ASCTEG also points out that some 4,000 badly needed jobs are provided on the Rock for Spaniards yet they have to suffer the indignity of being treated like cattle by the Guardia Civil.

I stand corrected. Cattle would be treated far better because they have action groups to take up their cause. Those who cross the border have to thank ASCTEG for speaking out. Sadly for Gibraltarians, when it comes to defending their interests before Spain, the chief minister and his government are simply not fit for the purpose.

CARUANA: YOU’RE A MAYOR!

I am sure Gibraltar’s chief minister, Peter Caruana, has been called many things in his political life both to his face, behind his back and in print. However it is probably the first time he has been told he’s just a mayor. Who say’s so? Well the mayor of La Línea, Alejandro Sánchez, that’s who. He should of course know what being a mayor is all about but his actions suggest he has little idea of anything.

The media had been summoned to a press conference to be held by the mayor on Tuesday morning at which he would impart his views on various topics of the day. The main part of his speech related to hitting at the PSOE opposition for its assessment of the municipality’s finances.

Now as it widely known La Línea is bankrupt. It cannot pay its municipal workers. The infrastructure is in a mess and there is sewage running through the streets and on to the beaches. So having to defend the indefensible is impossible but Sánchez loves to attempt to climb unreachable peaks.

It is a well used tactic of governments and dictators over the centuries that if they are facing unpopularity at home they start a war with their neighbours. Of course La Línea’s neighbour is Gibraltar so Sánchez couldn’t resist firing off a volley.

After telling us negotiations are going well with the Spanish airport authority AENA over the land for the airport terminal and that the toll could yet be a reality – in your dreams Mr Mayor, in your dreams – he decided to have a dig at Madrid and Caruana.

The official town hall press release puts in thus: “Con respecto a Gibraltar, se ha lamentado de la política desarrollada por el actual Gobierno de la Nación ‘que ha dado categoría de jefe de Estado a un señor como Caruana, que no es más que el alcalde de Gibraltar’.”

So let’s look at some of the responsibilities of Gibraltar and compare them with La Línea to ascertain which is municipal and which is gubernatorial.

Gibraltar is responsible for its all its finances, raises its own taxes whereas La Línea apart from local charges should receive monthly payments from Madrid except these are frozen because of its huge debts to the tax and social security agencies.

Gibraltar runs a government with its own ministries whereas La Línea is a municipal operation with the power and telecommunications to its offices frequently cut off because the bills aren’t paid.

Gibraltar is responsible for its own infrastructure and building projects. La Línea’s local infrastructure is a mess and major projects are funded by the Andalucía or Spanish governments.

Gibraltar generates its own electricity (don’t laugh!), provides its own water and sewage. Its telecoms companies are responsible for phone and internet connections. La Línea is reliant on Spanish companies for all such services and water, sewage is passed to the association of town halls as the municipality can’t pay its historic bills to the providers.

Gibraltar has its own army regiment, police service, ambulances and fire brigade. La Línea has no army except a verbal one, the police forces are State organizations except the town hall force. As the town hall still owes the Red Cross a huge amount of cash it closed down in its 100 th year and the fire brigade falls under the Cádiz consortium but La Línea has been threatened with expulsion on numerous occasions because it hasn’t paid its subscriptions.

Gibraltar runs its own airport and transport system. Any cross border involvement with the airport is through the AENA and La Línea’s transport connections are a disgrace.

Gibraltar has a very low jobless rate whilst at least 10,000 people in La Línea are officially on the dole but the real figure is far higher. Gibraltar is responsible for its own employment matters. In La Línea it falls to Madrid and Andalucía with the town hall doing nothing to help those in need.

Of course I could go on and on – adding that’s whilst the people of La Línea are Spanish and part of Spain the people of Gibraltar are Gibraltarian, and hence a nation.

CRACK DOWN ON CONTRABAND TOBACCO

After pressure from the mayor of La Línea, border shop owners and the licensed ‘estanco’ tobacconists the Guardia Civil and National Police have started a crack down on contraband tobacco sales in the town.

This week the Guardia Civil and the Customs service have inspected the various street kiosks in La Línea to determine whether they are selling illicit cigarettes. The campaign is being extended to other premises but as of yet it is not known whether any closure orders have been issued.

The National Police have also set up road blocks in various parts of La Línea to search vehicles to see if they are carrying smuggled cigarettes from Gibraltar.

The Asociación de Estanqueros de Cádiz has long been angry that its members not only in La Línea but in the wider Campo de Gibraltar and beyond are losing out to under-the-counter cigarette sales. Obviously international cigarettes smuggled across the border are sold for far less than the “estancos” who have their prices controlled by law with tax paid. They have labelled what goes on at the border with people openly strolling through customs with black bags containing a carton of cigarettes as “scandalous”.

Since the mayor of La Línea, Alejandro Sánchez, held a meeting with the local security committee including the Guardia Civil, National and local police chiefs there has been a toughening up of the procedures at the border. Now anybody passing through with a carton of cigarettes is sent to a special desk to have their details registered on the customs computer.

The association representing the “estancos” recently had a letter published in the press highlighting the problems its members face due to the trafficking across the Gibraltar border. It says the letter was studied by the Comité Consultivo del Comisionado del Tabaco which includes the ministries of the interior, exterior, tax, health along with the manufacturers and distributors of cigarettes.

Of course some of the international brands of cigarettes that are sold below the counter are genuine packets smuggled across the border from Gibraltar. However criminals being criminals gangs are also introducing cigarettes that look as if they are in authentic packets but which are in fact fake – so the “estancos” are being hit by a double whammy.

The accusation is this fake tobacco is also brought across the border. If it is then it would be of major concern to the Gibraltar Government and the RGP as it would mean the packets were being manufactured on the Rock or smuggled in. I asked my man in the pinstripe suit who said as far as he was aware, no cigarettes are manufactured in Gibraltar. “I doubt very much there would exist a clandestine cigarette factory in such a small place. Neither am I aware of any cigarettes being smuggled in.” More likely the illicit cigarettes are being brought in to Spain by launch from Morocco but it would be in Gibraltar’s best interests to investigate these claims.

On Wednesday the Guardia Civil announced it had seized 559 cartons of cigarettes in La Línea. A Spanish national was spotted carrying various plastic bags which officers suspected contained tobacco. On searching the bags 160 packets of Fortuna, 239 of Pall Mall, 60 of American Legend, 50 Chesterfield, 20 Winston and 30 of Winston Classic were found. So far this year the Guardia Civil says it has seized 18,538 packets of various international brands.