Fabian Picardo: Gibraltar vindicated over border queues

"Gibraltar’s cause in Europe was a marathon, not a sprint"

(gbc.gi)

GIBRALTAR -- In an interview on GBC, the Chief Minister said that the Gibraltar and UK Governments are absolutely vindicated in their approach to dealing with Spain’s border harassment. Reacting to the European Commission’s letter to Spain, which was sent last July but came to light on Monday, Fabian Picardo says he always maintained that fighting Gibraltar’s cause in Europe was a marathon, not a sprint, and believes they are now seeing results. Speaking to GBC, Mr Picardo said he now realises why Spain didn't want to publish the letter sent to it. He said the Commission hasn't let Gibraltar down, nor has it let Spain off the hook. Mr Picardo says it’s obvious that following that letter, sent to Spain last July, Spain is now clearly acting in a way designed to comply with the Commission’s recommendations, and we are now seeing works at the frontier to that effect. He also believes that, barring one or two incidents, we haven’t seen huge queues forming at the frontier compared to pre-July queues. (Source: GBC)

European Commission rebukes Spain over border queues

Deadline for finishing work by summer of 2015 'at the latest'

(www.telegraph.co.uk)

GIBRALTAR (from The Gibraltar Chronicle by Dominique Searle) In a stinging letter the European Commission has criticised Spain and given it the deadline of summer 2015 for the completion of its works at the frontier that are supposed to respond to the “unjustified” delays witnessed by a team of EU experts in September 2013. The move comes in a letter recently sent to the Madrid Government which also sets out new steps its expects to be taken to ease flow. It states that checks by the Spanish authorities on travellers should be “significantly reduced” and that Spain should work with the Gibraltar border authorities in relation to frontier reforms. The letter also details that the Commission last July offered to act as a conduit for two way information exchanges between Spain and Gibraltar on the basis of each side approving what information can be passed on.