Compromise likely in border convention dispute

Date: 11/04/1996

FIVE years after talks began, a solution to one of the three key problems still standing in the way of agreement on an EU convention on external borders may now be in sight - although deep divisions remain over the other two.

While the UK and Spain show no sign of settling their dispute over the status of Gibraltar, and the British government is maintaining its opposition to granting the European Court of Justice the right of supervision, a compromise may soon be struck on the issue of the voting procedure to be used.

Arguments over whether measures spelling out the practical details of the convention's application should be decided unanimously or by qualified majority vote have dogged efforts to reach agreement on the convention.

But diplomats say there are now signs that the UK might be prepared to accept a carefully-balanced compromise proposal put forward by the European Commission in an attempt to resolve the dispute.

The Commission has suggested using a mixture of majority voting and unanimity, depending on the sensitivity of individual articles in the convention - a compromise which all delegations have said they will examine in a favourable light.

But deadlock remains over what role, if any, the ECJ should be given in the judicial policing of the convention. London's refusal to entrust interpretation of the external borders convention to the European Court mirrors long-standing British opposition to establishing the Luxembourg judges as supreme arbiters of the Europol Convention.

The Italian presidency is hoping that any compromise to end the Europol dispute - which EU leaders have agreed to settle by their next summit meeting in Florence in June - will serve as a model for resolving the dispute over the external borders convention.

At the last meeting of EU justice and internal affairs ministers on 20-21 March, the Italian presidency instructed the relevant Council of Ministers' working committees to continue their search for a compromise on all three issues.

But while the disagreement on majority voting may be moving towards a resolution and the dispute over ECJ involvement would almost certainly benefit from a breakthrough over the future of Europol, the conflict over Gibraltar shows no sign of easing.

With Spain disputing British sovereignty over the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula since the Rock of Gibraltar came under British rule in 1704, the conflict, which has never led to open war, is one of the oldest in European history.

The Spanish government has repeatedly made it clear that it is determined to treat the border with Gibraltar as an external EU frontier under the convention, since it refuses to recognise the small territory as a British dependency.

The UK, meanwhile, is determined that the Rock should be considered as Union territory.

“Gibraltar is like a ball being played back and forth,” says a EU diplomat involved in the negotiations. “None of us know when and how these two (the UK and Spain) will settle this issue. But they will have to find a solution. You cannot exclude Gibraltar from the scope of the convention, since this is exactly what the conflict is about.”

With a majority of EU member states concentrating their efforts on making the Schengen Agreement work - the scope of which goes far beyond the external borders convention - the pressure for a speedy conclusion of the latter agreement is not as strong as it might otherwise be. “Don't forget that we've already been negotiating for years,” said one EU diplomat. “Some of us have become used to the deadlock by now.”

But the pressure on ministers to strike a deal is growing as the clamour for a truly border-free Europe increases.

Agreement on the convention is seen as a vital precursor to any attempt to extend the Schengen Agreement to all 15 EU member states, abolishing passport controls on all travellers moving between countries within the Union's borders.