  |
Hague must put Margallo in his place
|
PANORAMA VIEWPOINT~ In land, the Spanish workers in Gibraltar included, there are complaints about the long delays at the Spanish frontier, a violation of EU freedom of movement; while at sea, the Royal Navy, with the support of Gibraltar, complains about the para-military Civil Guards and Spanish fishermen violating British Gibraltar Territorial Waters. Where will it ail end?
As foreign secretary William Hague prepares to meet his Spanish counterpart Jose Margallo in London tomorrow, it is hoped in Gibraltar that Hague will put Margallo in his place, before the fishing dispute escalates further.
No sooner had Margallo been named foreign minister by the PP government, he was making threats against Gibraltar. He was to break the Trilateral Forum which had been constituted at government level for the purpose of reaching agreements on issues of cooperation that were of mutual interest.
He has failed to grasp a vitally important component in Spanish/Gibraltar relations, and that is that the Trilateral Forum, at government level, was subsequent to the 1999 fishing agreement at a local level. He can abandon the former but Gibraltar cannot do likewise with the latter, that is his peculiar logic.
Having seen what his aggressive style can bring, Margallo is now saying that dialogue is the way forward. It is to be hoped he means what he says. Already he has been urging dialogue, but to bring about a return to the 1999 fishing deal, which is unacceptable to the new Gibraltar government for reasons explained by them.
Another development is that the fishermen from Algeciras, which constitute the minority in the equation, now appear ready to join those from La Linea, who represent the majority; A question of 53 to 6.
They are to explore joining the working party as agreed in the Gibraltar memorandum of understanding which is not about a return to the 1999 agreement, but an attempt at establishing if it is possible to reach a new agreement acceptable to all.
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has been urging dialogue from the beginning, but making it clear that the armed para-military Guardia Civil must not be allowed to invade Gibraltar's territorial waters to support fishermen to break Gibraltar laws.
To anyone with a modicum of knowledge of international law, it should be obvious that there were no territorial waters at the time of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, as defined today, the concept having developed to the UN convention on territorial seas, first concluded hi the 1950s to a 3-mile limit and subsequently, in the 1980s, increased to a limit of 12 miles to all territories having a sea coast, which must include Gibraltar.
Rarely, if ever, is there any mention of territorial waters in a land cession which includes a sea coast, the UK view being that a cession of territory automatically carries the cession of the appurtenant territorial waters unless the contrary is specifically stated. The UN convention on the territorial sea and the contiguous zone states: 'The sovereignty of a State extends beyond its land territory and its internal waters, to a belt of sea adjacent to its coast, described as the territorial sea.'
If Margallo or anyone else does not agree with that, their option is to test their arguments in the International Court of Justice as first proposed by the UK in 1966, but not to engage in self-judged positions, disseminating the notion that Gibraltar has no territorial waters and that the waters round the Rock are Spanish, leading to others, so urged, taking the law into their own hands.
28-05-12
|
|
|
|
