Wrong time, wrong place

Date: 06/02/1997

Was it merely a strange coincidence that two senior members of the EU top brass who simply could not find time to meet the Gibraltarian delegation in town last week were both Spanish.

Intergovernmental Conference Commissioner Marcelino Oreja and the new European Parliament President José María Gil-Robles had pressing engagements, apparently, which made it impossible to arrange a chat with Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Cuarano and his team.

Oreja turned down the minister on the grounds that there was nothing to discuss. “At the moment there is nothing in his dossier that has anything to do with Gibraltar. He decided that it was not appropriate to see him,” said a spokesman.

Meanwhile, Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan did manage to fit the Gibraltarians in for a brief chat, even though his spokesman explained that there was nothing in his dossier that had anything directly to do with the Rock.

Most of Gibraltar's grievances are, of course, over Spain, which has made sure that Gibraltar-based mobile phones will not work across the border. The Gibraltarian dialling code is also not recognised by Spain.

Then there is the question of recognition of passports and identity cards and the ban on maritime and air links between Spain and Gibraltar.

All provide prime facie evidence of infringements both of free movement and competition rules, one might think, but the Commission is still studying the dossier, according to officials.

This is particularly puzzling, given that none other than Commission President Jacques Santer and his wife visited the Rock privately recently and endured a ludicrous wait to cross the border by car from Spain. “Don't talk to me about queues, we've waited nearly two hours to get in,” the president told his taxi driver, according to an exclusive report in Gibraltar's The New People newspaper.

The general thinking within the Commission is that whatever the rights and wrongs of Spain's dispute with the UK over ownership of the Rock, it is all part of EU territory and such blatant impediments should not be allowed. The difficulty is getting anyone to say as much publicly.

“If this kind of thing were going on between any two other pieces of territory within the Union, the Commission would have dragged everyone to court long ago,” said one (non-Spanish) official.