Fabian Picardo says Spain is acting like North Korea and that 'hell will freeze over' before Gibraltar removes artificial reef

Gibraltar's chief minister has accused Spain of acting like North Korea and sabre-rattling over the country's new hardline stance on Gibraltar.

Fabian Picardo said the Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil, was being belligerent when he suggested that a €50 (£43) fee could be imposed on every vehicle entering or leaving the British Mediterranean outpost through its border with Spain.

García-Margallo said the proceeds could be used to help Spanish fishermen who have lost out because of damage to fishing grounds allegedly caused by Gibraltarian authorities. Such a fee could impose punitive costs on Gibraltarians who regularly commute to Spain to work.

Picardo said "hell will freeze over" before the authorities in Gibraltar remove an artificial reef which Madrid claims is harming Spanish fishermen. He said any border costs would violate European Union freedom of movement rules.

Spain is also considering closing its airspace to flights heading to the Rock. Picardo claimed such a move would be dangerous was the "politics of madness".

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "What we have seen this weekend is sabre-rattling of the sort that we haven't seen for some time. The things that Mr García-Margallo has said are more reminiscent of the type of statement you'd hear from North Korea than from an EU partner.

"We've seen it before during Franco's time during the 1960s but I think all of us hoped that those politics were never going to come back and that the much more enlightened politics of Mr [Miguel Ángel] Moratinos, who was the previous but one foreign minister of Spain, would prevail, which talked about people working together and creating economic benefits for the citizens on both sides of the frontier rather than the belligerence we are seeing now."

On Sunday the Foreign Office voiced concerns over García-Margallo's comments and said Britain would not compromise its sovereignty over Gibraltar.

A spokesman made clear that the UK expected Madrid to live up to the commitments it made in the 2006 Cordoba agreement, which included deals on issues such as border crossings and flight access, as well as establishing a tripartite forum for regular dialogue between Britain, Spain and Gibraltar.

García-Margallo's comments represent the latest escalation in the dispute over the status of Gibraltar, following a number of alleged Spanish incursions into the territory's waters.

Spain claims sovereignty over the Rock, which stands on the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula but has been a British overseas territory since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The British government has made clear that it will not negotiate over sovereignty as long as Gibraltar's people want to remain British.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, last month phoned García-Margallo to complain about Spain increasing border checks, which forced drivers to wait for up to seven hours in high temperatures.

On Sunday the Foreign Office summoned the Spanish ambassador to demand assurances that there would be no repeat of the excessive checks.