HAS THE TIDE CHANGED OVER OUR TERRITORIAL WATERS?

I have been catching up with my reading. I have come across an article on remarks made by Carmen Crespo who is the delegate of the Andalucía government. She was speaking after the first incursion of the Spanish warship, Vencedora, on Tuesday of last week. The report was from Europa Press which in turn featured an interview she had given to Canal Sur Radio where she spoke of our government’s persistent “reluctance” to accept the waters around the Rock are Spanish.

Although Crespo spoke of the Vencedora she was also taking the Andalucía angle of expressing her concern about the banning of Spanish fishermen to operate in our waters. Here she spoke of our “reticencias” to accept the right of the fishermen of the “Bahía de Algeciras” to “pesca totalmente legal y sin ningún tipo de cortapisa” in our waters because “no asumen que son aguas jurisdiccionales españolas”.

Crespo was saying nothing new but what she did was enunciate very clearly the true state of the stand-off between all the parties on these issues. On the British – Gibraltarian side we have the belief, backed by international treaty, that Gibraltar has three miles of British Gibraltarian Territorial Waters surrounding the Rock. From Spain’s perspective the waters around Gibraltar are Spanish and the basis for that is the fact the Treaty of Utrecht did not grant any rights over the waters. Hence Spain, be it the Armada or a fishing boat from La Línea, believes that when its vessels enters our waters it is in fact in Spanish waters. Nothing new there but at least the dispute is clear.

Of course this situation is not new and existed in 1999 when the local Spanish fishermen held the former Supreme Leader over a fish barrel and persuaded him to break the law of Gibraltar by allowing them to fish illegally in our waters in contravention of the 1991 Nature Protection Act. Not only did the Supreme Leader break that law and continued to do so till he was ousted from office last December but his former Minister of Justice, who is desperate for his job as leader of the opposition, endorses to this day this illegal act. Nothing new there either.

What may be new is the reaction of the Convent being the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in disguise. In the past incursions, be they from the Guardia Civil, other Spanish agencies or the Armada, have evoked angry statements from No.6 but a hushed response from the neighbours across the street. Not this time: indeed I think the Convent’s statement spitting diplomatic fire arrived in my inbox well before our government’s own response.

It could be that the Guardia Civil, the coast guard or environmental patrols have not been of a sufficient high profile to waken the Governor or the F&CO from its let sleeping dogs lie stance. However an armed warship is another kettle of fish especially twice in a week. Such incursions cannot be tolerated by London because if Nelson’s blind eye is turned here it would send the wrong signals to Argentina. I have written here before on the linkage between the UK’s tough words on sovereignty and the right to self determination for both Gibraltar and the Falklands. So just imagine the furore in Whitehall if an Argentine warship appeared in the waters of the Falkland’s on two consecutive Tuesdays.

Crespo has crisply set out the dispute: now it is for London to take the issue to Madrid and if need be the wider international forums such as the UN or courts of law. Gibraltar’s right to its own international waters are set out in the Geneva Convention. That right has to be upheld or the Falkland’s right goes down the drain too.

WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY ON GIBRALTAR?

August is fast approaching and I have my summer reading ready. When I was in London I bought a copy of Alastair Campbell’s latest diaries on Blair and the Iraq War (The Burden of Power: the countdown to Iraq). By chance I flicked though it last night to see what references there were on Gibraltar: three to be exact and very brief: my first reaction was they were of little interest.

However having slept on it I awoke this morning to realise Blair’s first reference to Gibraltar was in fact dynamite. I then read our Government’s statement on the Guardia Civil incursion on Friday and I believe in a very roundabout way there is a link.

Back to Blair who in Campbell’s book is preparing for a press conference with the Spanish premier José María Aznar. Blair asks Aznar: “What do you want me to say on Gibraltar?” Before Aznar can reply Campbell jumps in as shouts “Don’t answer that!”

Last night I took another sip of my gin and tonic and moved on. This morning I found the reference again whilst drinking my green tea and needed nothing stronger. Here is the British Prime Minister of the day asking the Spanish Prime Minister what Madrid wants him to say about Gibraltar. My God, thank goodness Campbell was there to stop the answer although we know from the joint sovereignty debacle that followed just what it was!

Now a lot of water has flowed under Westminster Bridge since then but in some ways relations between Gibraltar, the UK and Spain have not changed one jot. Spain, especially PP governed Spain, is still the bully and it knows that every time it give Gibraltar a Chinese burn No.6 has to run to Whitehall for help.

The problem is Westminster and Whitehall are none too keen to get involved. Anglo - Spanish relations always come before Anglo – Gibraltar relations simply because Spain is more important to the UK as a trading and political partner than Gibraltar is. I suspect as I write a Mandarin in the Foreign Office is dusting down a formal protest to Madrid on Friday’s incident: it will be presented and accepted with all due ceremony then put in the cardboard box with all the others and promptly forgotten about.

Let me give you two scenarios: on Friday night a French Gendarmerie patrol boat boarded a UK vessel in British waters off Dover and under darkness took the boat to Calais where the innocent crew where held for two hours and then released. Result: all hell would have broken loose, the TV news channels would be giving blanket coverage, politically and diplomatically Britain would be breathing fire!

OK, on Friday night an Argentinean naval patrol boarded a Falkland’s vessel in the island’s waters and took it under darkness to Buenos Aires where the British crew were held and questioned before being released. Result: Britain would be jumping up and down at the UN and Royal Navy patrols would be beefed up.

So too last Friday: a Guardia Civil armed patrol boat boards a British vessel in Gibraltar’s water and takes it in darkness to Algeciras where after two hours questioning the crew and boat are finally released.

Is Britain breathing fire? No!

Is it receiving 24 hours UK news coverage? No!

Has Britain increased its Royal Navy presence? No!

Is Britain’s ambassador to the UN lodging an urgent protest? No!

The key difference between the first and second scenarios and Gibraltar is they took place in British home waters and the oil rich waters of the Falklands. Gibraltar is adrift, alone, in the waters of the bay – albeit it British Territorial ones, which some Whitehall Mandarin thought were off Algeria, so left to Spain under the EU’s environmental plans.

And so we return to the ghost of a British Prime Minister asking his Spanish counterpart – “What do you want me to say on Gibraltar?”

The fact is the waters, airspace and borders of Gibraltar will only be fully secure when Gibraltar and not Britain defends them. Gibraltar has to stand up alone to the Spanish bully and until it does the pinching and punching will go on and on and on. The ultimate challenge is will Gibraltar take on this nasty bully because London won’t.

GLOVES OFF: TIME TO GO TO COURT

Over the years I have spoken to many local politicians and all have been of the opinion that if Gibraltar went to court to challenge the validity in this modern age of the Treaty of Utrecht the government would win and it would be placed in the judicial waste bin.

I include in that number Daniel Feetham who was then leader of the Labour Party. I would not hold anybody to their views from a past life but as he will soon no doubt be the leader of the GSD his stance is important. However I have read or heard nothing to suggest he doesn’t still hold that view.

Given that the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, the deputy leader of the GSD, Daniel Feetham, and the leader of the PDP, Keith Azopardi, are all lawyers their collective agreement on this issue is important. It is not only important to win the legal battle but also the fight for public opinion. Hence Gibraltar needs to be united and 100 per cent behind this cause.

I accept there are lawyers and there are lawyers hence Messers Picardo, Feetham and Azopardi may well not be the ones to stand up in court and argue the case on an ancient treaty and constitutional matters. None-the-less Gibraltar and the world are not short of lawyers and perhaps Michael Llamas QC might be such a legal eagle.

In a recent Government statement on the fishing dispute Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said “I am the fifth Chief Minister of Gibraltar to challenge Spain to litigation on the issue of the territorial waters around Gibraltar. Instead of accepting our successive challenges to resolve matters in an International Court, some elements in Spain continue to risk the lives of those at sea by seeking to advance its position in the waters around Gibraltar.”

Well my question as a lay man is if five Chief Ministers were confident enough to take the matter before a court why haven’t we called Spain’s bluff before now and done just that?

Whilst the waters and air space issues are the ones the court in such circumstances would be required to rule on I believe it should be the whole issue of the Treaty of Utrecht that should be up for judicial grabs.

Again as a lay man I can see no danger for Gibraltar. If we lose the case then the Treaty of Utrecht is upheld and as long as Gibraltar remains British, by the will of the Gibraltarian people, then the status quo stays.

However if the court rules that Gibraltar is entitled under international law to its own air space and waters, as provided for in the 1958 Geneva Convention to which Spain is a signatory, then it’s certainly game, set to us. If the court also rules the Treaty of Utrecht is as dead as the Dodo then you can add match over too.

In the 1967 referendum 99.19 per cent of Gibraltarians voted to reject any move to transfer them to Spanish sovereignty. In 2002 almost the same number, 98.48 per cent, rejected the attempts by Tony Blair and Jack Straw to bounce Gibraltar in to a joint sovereignty deal with Spain. The people of Gibraltar have been staunch in their rejection of Spain and surely it is now time to take the matter to court to cement in judicial stone the death of the Treaty of Utrecht and the right of the people of the Rock to self determine their own futures.

Of course Spain would oppose taking the case to court: but so too would any land grabber threatened with legal action. Britain would also oppose it as there is nothing the Foreign Office and the establishment likes less than change. Certainly it would be happy for joint sovereignty to be imposed but as an extension of the Treaty. However take away the Treaty of Utrecht and you remove the plank on which London – Madrid relations have been founded on for over 300 years. The brolly brigade would be in uncharted territory whilst Gibraltar would have a legally enforced map of its seas and air space. Do it I say!

WHOSE WATERS ARE THEY: BRITISH OR GIBRALTARIAN?

When the fishing dispute started with the Spanish fishermen, be they from Algeciras or La Línea, I suggested that before long the issue would be the ownership of those waters. After all if Spain claims Gibraltar only has the waters of the harbour then logically the fishing fleets from across the border, in Madrid’s view, would be free to go where they wish.

Today I am going to go a stage further and ask whether Gibraltar’s waters are indeed Gibraltar’s or Britain’s?

I have seen the term used of British Admiralty waters and also that whilst Gibraltar has a three mile limit, where that is applicable, Britain could under international law impose a 12 mile limit. Needless to say the British Government, or more likely the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has not followed this up nor is it likely to do so.

Now when the mayor of Algeciras, José Ignacio Landaluce, came a knocking at No 6 he was wrong footed and I suspect shocked to find that the chief minister did not have control over the Royal Gibraltar Police. That honour goes to the Governor who holds office not because Gibraltarians voted him in but because the F&CO appointed him. In other words he is Whitehall’s man.

So we have the scenario where the waters are British not Gibraltarian, Gibraltar through its parliament has passed environmental laws governing those waters but the body responsible for policing it is the RGP which in effect is bossed from London.

Now I raise this issue because there are suggestions in the Spanish media that London will decide if the Spanish fishermen can operate in our waters and not the Gibraltar Government. Given the last thing London wants is confrontation with Madrid then it is a foregone conclusion that the fishing fleets will be given the green light: so presumably the Gibraltar Government and indeed all Gibraltarians (ok 98.48 per cent of them) will see red.

It could be that the Spanish press reports are mischief making but even so they raise an important issue: who governs in Gibraltar – the Gibraltar Government and Parliament or London? Are Gibraltar’s waters Gibraltarian or British? We know the answer from Madrid is the waters are Spanish but at least Gibraltarians thought in that battle they had the British Government onside but perhaps they don’t after all.

If the Gibraltar Government has taken the stand that the environment law passed by the then House of Assembly should be upheld surely that is what must be done? If the British Government intervenes and forces No 6 to bow to the Spanish Armada then it shames the Rock and weakens the very foundations on which our democracy is based.

The question is who governs Gibraltar: No.6 or the guy across the road, Gibraltarians or the sweet F&CO?

IS IT GOING TO BE AN OCTOBER ELECTION?

All too often what should be told first to Gibraltarians by their chief minister or GSD government appears in print in Spain. There are numerous examples, one of the most notable being Caruana announcement in Sevilla that he wanted to drag his people in to an Andorra-style joint sovereignty deal.

Now the respected Spanish national daily newspaper, ABC, says the election will be in October. A good guess or has somebody at No.6 been briefing or let the cat out of the bag? It notes Caruana will be bidding for a fifth consecutive term in power and hence to fend off his socialist candidate has become more nationalistic and anti-Spanish. Sorry I must have missed that.

The subject was raised as ABC says Spain’s minister for foreign affairs, Trinidad Jiménez, has invited her British counter counterpart, William Hague, to Madrid for a re-run of the Trini and Willie show that first took place in London in February.

On the agenda is apparently the rescuing of the Tripartite Dialogue Forum in which no dialogue has been taking place for some time. The urgency is that Spain goes to the polls on November 20, after which Trini might well be looking for a new job out of government, and hence ABC mentioning the potential problems over dates because of Gibraltar’s own October poll.

Of course the Holy Grail of Spanish politics is the country’s belief that Gibraltar belongs to Spain and each party recites that mantra whilst following either a hard or soft relationship with the Rock. The PP are the hard ball players and hence Trini had to assure them and the media in February that the PSOE government had not changed or softened its stance with regard to Gibraltar and Spanish sovereignty.

In the run up to the Spanish election PSOE will want to demonstrate that it is taking no nonsense from Caruana even thought the majority of Spaniards are only concerned with the economy and the unemployment totals.

There has been no ministerial of the forum since October of last year with none seemingly likely in the near future as the disagreements rage over policing. Furthermore Caruana has antagonised Spain by tossing the territorial waters issue in to the mix, waters which Madrid maintains are Spanish. Hence Spain also maintains it is a bi-lateral issue between London and Madrid, certainly nothing to do with the chief minister.

It is probably true to say that William Hague would happily put the forum out to grass for a while given the numerous international issues that trouble him such as Libya. However Trini would like to be seen to be taking action before Spain goes to the polls and any such talks would have to take place before a Gibraltar election campaign got underway.

However Trini might have some trouble in wooing Willie to come over to her place. The British Government is fully aware that if opinion polls are to be believed both Spain and Gibraltar could be heading for new governments. Hence there seems little point in having talks with the present incumbents in Madrid and on the Rock when in a month or so the policy of both governments could have changed dramatically.

LANDALUCE WHIPS UP TROUBLED WATERS

The Partido Popular is whipping up a storm over the British Government’s decision to appeal the European Court’s decision to reject its original appeal against the EU’s decision to cede control in environmental matters to Spain over its waters.

Of course London isn’t totally innocent in this mess. Spain laid a claim to the waters before the EU. The British Government got its map co-ordinates wrong so asked to protect waters by all accounts off Algeria which isn’t even in the EU. As Britain made no claim over the Rock’s waters they were given to Spain.

This is God’s gift to Spain which doesn’t recognise Britain’s jurisdiction over the waters anyway although under international law Gibraltar has a three mile limit which could be extended to 12.

Sir Graham Watson, Gibraltar’s Lib Dem Euro MP, told PANORAMA: “The ECJ’s decision to reject the initial claim was down to a technicality. I’m pleased to see that the Foreign Secretary has announced the UK will be appealing the Court’s decision.

“Spain continues to be adventurous with regards to its actions relating to the Rock, and this is no exception.   Ultimately this case would not have occurred in the first place if Labour ministers had not been asleep on their watch.”

José Ignacio Landaluce is the PP MP for Cádiz province who has always been a stern critic of Gibraltar but now as mayor of Algeciras has a key interest in what goes on in the waters of the bay. He has called on the Spanish Government to act with “major firmness” and to maintain and protect Spain’s own waters.

Landaluce has also weighed in on Caruana’s plan to create a coastguard agency which could have patrol boats and helicopters to protect the Rock’s waters. The PP, the party that the chief minister assures us he can do business with, says this is tantamount to Gibraltar creating borders. Landaluce talks of the “pretensions” of the chief minister in “creating a service of coastguards charged with defending and guarding the waters the colony defines as its own. Of course the Spanish mantra is not only does the Rock have no waters its only land mass is that agreed in the Treaty of Utrecht.

The mayor’s office in Algeciras sent PANORAMA a statement in which the MP declares:  “A situation is continuing which could lead to another turn of the screw to the already insulting relations between Gibraltar and Spain, which could also lead to yet further clashes between the authorities of the colony and the Guardia Civil in these waters.”

The MP and Algeciras mayor is planning to ask a series of questions in Spain’s lower house of parliament, Congress, on the Spanish Government’s position with respect to the waters and coastguard issue.

The other issue here is does London approve of Gibraltar’s plan to have a coastguard agency? At present the protection of the waters around the Rock lies primarily with the Royal Navy. The waters are British Admiralty and hence it is an issue for London not No.6. The Foreign Office has made it clear it believes the present navy contingent is sufficient for the task and has resisted calls from Caruana to engage in gun boat diplomacy. The last thing London and Madrid wants is a shooting match between armed British and Spanish Naval vessels in the bay. However if Caruana is adamant in having his own air force and navy will that put him at odds with London?

Of course it could all be pre-election talk. The chief minister has spoken in the past about providing the Royal Gibraltar Police with larger patrol boats which have never materialised in the waters around the Rock but could have, of course, amongst the suds and rubber ducks of his bath! Let us not go there!

GIBRALTAR ONLY HAS HARBOUR’S WATERS

As tensions heighten over the incursions of Guardia Civil patrol boats and now the Spanish navy into Gibraltar’s territorial waters Spain’s minister for foreign affairs, Trinidad Jiménez, has stated as far as Madrid is concerned the Rock’s only waters are those laid down in the Treaty of Utrecht.

This stance has been that of Spain since the ink first dried on the battered and largely discredited treaty. Whilst even Franco turned a blind eye to its provisions the PSOE government, perhaps with elections in mind, has been upping the pressure in an attempt to outdo the Partido Popular.

Indeed when Jiménez made her statement is was in response to a question from PP Senator Alejandro Muñoz-Alonso on the incident between the Guardia Civil and RGP in Gibraltar’s waters on April 24. At that stage the latest incursion by the Spanish navy’s corvette, Atalaya, had not yet filtered through to Madrid.

None-the-less the foreign minister was adamant that Spain was not going to give more rights to Gibraltar over its waters above what is laid out in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. She stressed this gave Gibraltar (and Britain) only jurisdiction over the waters of the port and not the three miles that is claimed under international law, let alone the 12 miles which the UK could claim and which many in Gibraltar argue it should.

Jiménez went on to guarantee that the Spanish Government would “always safeguard this premise” and expressed her “full support” for the work of the Guardia Civil in fighting crime in the waters of what Madrid calls the Bay of Algeciras. She added that Spain would handle the matter with firmness and in a responsible manner.

As on previous occasions Jiménez stated that the problems with the UK over the waters “are absolutely not new” and have been going on with “different intensity for almost 20 years”. She stressed that the position of the socialist government was exactly the same as previous administrations over “the defence of Spanish sovereignty in the waters surrounding Gibraltar”.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a formal protest note to the British Embassy in Madrid after the April 24 incident voicing its “most firm rejection” of the incident. However the PP in the form of Muñoz-Alonso considered this to be “insufficient, uncouth and sterile”.

Spain has to be credited with one thing: its stance over Gibraltar’s waters and airspace is as clear as can be. The Gibraltar Government is powerless to act other than to protest to Madrid and London in the strongest possible terms.

It is the British Government’s waters that are being violated and it is London that has to respond with appropriate action. Whether the Foreign Office will want to take a stand on this issue, invoking international law, remains to be seen. My guess is that it will not.

The attitude of London and Madrid seems to be that Gibraltar is a shared thorn in their mutual sides and conflict in the bay or off the eastern shore will continue to happen. Spain will wave the Treaty of Utrecht, Britain international law books, but in the meantime it will be business as usual between the two nations.

The challenge for the chief minister, or Fabian Picardo if he succeeds him, is to get the British Government to honour its obligations to the people of Gibraltar and its own interests by defending the Rock’s internationally recognised waters. A failure to do so will see this 200 year old dispute rattling on like a rusty sabre for another 100 years.

(The photo shows part of the waters of Gibraltar’s Harbour that are recognised by Spain. Ironically the harbour water’s described in the Treaty of Utrecht are those of the much smaller Nelson’s Harbour – the present day location didn’t exist in 1713).