Walter Finch
GIBRALTAR has dared the Spanish authorities to ‘sue us in your own courts’ over a controversial landfill project on the Rock’s eastern side.
The government branded Spanish complaints about the new marina development and their claims to the territorial waters around the Rock as ‘legal and political nonsense.’
A spokesperson told the Olive Press: “The BEST thing that could EVER happen to Gibraltar would be that any official entity of Spain should start a litigation on our waters, in any court, even their own.”
The rebuttal came after Madrid and the Junta accused the ongoing €340 million Eastside project of being an ‘invasion of sovereign Spanish waters’ which ‘fails to comply with international environmental rules.’
But the Gibraltar government dismissed the allegations and invited the Spanish government to take legal action against them.
“It would enable us to make justiciable the nonsense of the argument they make that we have no Territorial Waters or, indeed, that our reclamation projects have not complied with all relevant and applicable rules,” the government said.
It added: “Gibraltar will not ever seek permission from Spain to reclaim land or for any other lawful activity in the exclusively British waters around Gibraltar.”
“Anyone who thinks we would does not understand the rights we have under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the worthless legal nature of the reservations entered by Spain in respect thereof.”
The Spanish government had claimed this week that Gibraltar had not ‘requested any permits’ to carry out landfills in ‘ecologically protected Spanish waters.’
Despite the Spanish protests and the claims that the construction is taking place in a Spanish-designated ‘Special Conservation Zone’, it is unclear which authority would deal with the dispute.
Spain refused a UK invitation to put the issue before the International Court of Justice in the 1960s and since then has preferred to assert its sovereignty by making frequent incursions into the disputed waters.
Nor would EU courts take on the case, with a spokesperson confirming to the Olive Press that it ‘is not competent to deal with this matter following Brexit.’
But the Gibraltar government is eager to bring the issue to any court, even with Spanish judges, because it believes the Spanish claims to its waters could not stand up to legal scrutiny – even its own.
It added that ‘all reclamation projects done by Gibraltar in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters comply with all international and EU rules.’
“In fact, the reclamation on the Eastside was approved by the EU Commission at the time we were members of the EU.”
Despite Brussels no longer having competence in the issue, Gibraltar assured that it has ‘always complied’ with any EU ‘obligation to consult (which is NOT an obligation to seek permission).’
And while environmental groups have protested the harm the Eastside development would do to beaches in La Linea and further along the Spanish coast, the Gibraltar government pointed out that Spain ‘did not comply with the EU rule on consultation’ while expanding the port at Algeciras over the past decade.
“The reclamation projects in Algeciras for the expansion of the port had transboundary effects on Gibraltar and catastrophic effects on La Linea,” the spokesperson concluded.
The Eastside project, which expands Gibraltar’s territory and follows on from previous reclamation projects in the 1990s, reaches into the heart of the dispute over the territorial waters surrounding the Rock, which Spain claims as their own.
The 150,000 sqm development will include luxury apartments, office space, shopping centre and restaurants as well as a new marina that could add €3bn of economic value to the territory.
