  |
Another incursion on eve of fishing meeting
|
by PANORAMA reporter
With a meeting of the joint committee taking place today on the fishing issue, another Spanish fishing vessel - and the Guardia Civil - have made incursions into Gibraltar's territorial waters.
No information has been volunteered by the Gibraltar government about today's meeting, even though the Spanish side was making such information available, including that the meeting would be at 4pm.
Out at sea yesterday, an RGP vessel approached a Spanish fishing boat whose captain said that he was told: No, not you again!
The Spanish saw such mild intervention as meaning that the RGP was again trying to stir things up!
The Guardia Civil was also in the area.
But as we went to press no information had been volunteered by the RGP about this latest incident.
However the Spanish went to town on it. The fishing boat 'Divina Providencia' had been harassed by the Gibraltar police, said the Spanish press, from Madrid to the Campo.
The leader of the Spanish delegation at today's talks, Pedro Maza, said that the problem was not about fishing, and one report speaks of pessimism.
The Spanish seem to think that all that matters is a return to their fishing as was the case previously, using their fishing methods, in waters which many of them say are Spanish and hence their Spanish fishing licences are valid!
If Gibraltar decides to issue its own fishing licences, will the Spanish accept that it is the Gibraltar authorities who count when it comes to fishing in Gibraltar waters?
It is being recalled that in the recent memorandum of Understanding, the Spanish fishermen agreed that they would not defy the authority of the Gibraltar police. Yet, even yesterday, there was this incursion by Spanish vessels as if the agreement was not worth the paper on which it was written.
07-06-12
|
|
|
|
