CHIEF MINISTER TELLS POLICE COMMISSIONER: Spain cannot be a partner in law enforcement at sea until she accepts our jurisdiction over BGTW

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 Friday, October 11, 2019 - 10:12

by Our Political Correspondent

With the Spanish government continuing to uphold their claim to Gibraltar's sea sovereignty, saying that the waters of Gibraltar are Spanish as was the case only this week at the UN, there is public concern that the RGP may be undermining the British position in such a sensitive political matter by their Commissioner's pally so-called cooperation with the Spanish police. 

The whole thing was elevated to air sovereignty when the eastside incident on Sunday was described as an incursion by The Convent, which represents the Foreign Office.

At the UN 4th committee on Tuesday, the UK representative took a firm stand in defence of Gibraltar underlying British sovereigny over Gibraltar and the waters that surround he Rock.

So what is the RGP Commissioner on about?

We put it to the Chief Minister: The Spanish representative at UN said that the waters of

Gibraltar are Spanish. What do you say? And how can the RGP 'cooperate' with their Spanish counterparts when what they are effectively doing is conniving with the Spanish claim, now also with air incursions as The Convent says?

The Chief Minister was emphatic in defence of Gibraltar when he replied: "Spain cannot be a partner in law enforcement at sea until she accepts our jurisdiction over BGTW.

"De facto cooperation on the ground has always happened but cannot form part of an agreement, as far as we are concerned, until Spain accepts our legal jurisdiction over the waters set out as BGTW under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."

NO RECIPROCITY FROM SPAIN

Commissioner Ian McGrail says he is a firm believer of trans-frontier police cooperation.

That may be fine in normal circumstances, but as the Chief Minister has said, cooperation cannot form part of an agreement until Spain accepts Gibraltar's legal jurisdiction over British Gibraltar Territorial Waters.

But the Commissioner seems to think he lives in a world of his own. He said recently: "A police officer is a police officer, wherever he may be. A border should not be an obstacle for collaboration."

He naively recognises that while his officers testify in the Spanish courts, there is no reciprocity from Spain.

So, what kind of cooperation is that?

11-10-2019 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR