Minister's fury at Spanish moves to take over Gibraltar waters as Navy ship moves in



Royal Navy warships have forced a an armed Spanish ship to retreat from British waters around Gibraltar.

Relations between the 30,000 residents of the British outpost and mainland Spain have become strained following what the Foreign Office described as 'a violation of British sovereignty'.

Europe Minister Caroline Flint told the House of Commons that the Government remained 'deeply concerned' by recent developments in Europe affecting Gibraltar waters.



DISPUTE: Inhabitants are concerned the Spanish authorities want to control the British outpost of Gibraltar

The minister spoke out after the European Commission approved an application to designate the waters around the Rock as a Spanish site under EU nature legislation.



'As the UK is the only member state competent to propose a site covering British Gibraltar Territorial Waters, we do not recognise the validity of the adopted site,' she said.



'The UK is deeply concerned that Spain should seek to designate an area of BGTW and that this designation should have been approved.'



Britain has made 'written and oral representations' to Spain on this matter, she said.



Ms Flint continued: 'The [British] Government are fully confident of its sovereignty over British Gibraltar Territorial Waters and continues to make this clear to Spain whenever appropriate.'

The warships were dispatched after Spanish ships sent boarding parties to inspect fishing boats in British waters, despite having no authority to do so.



The Rock's inhabitants fear Spain could damage their economy by making moves to seize control of its sea and air traffic.

The incident on May 8 is the latest in a long series since Britain was handed Gibraltar in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.

The Spanish Government has refused to recognise that territorial waters were a part of that agreement and made repeated attempts to reclaim them.

For centuries Gibraltar has been a key strategic base for the Royal Navy.



The latest incident followed a day after Gibraltar's government vowed to block EU moves to give responsibility for the environment around the Rock to Spain.

A spokesman for Gibraltar's opposition GSLP/Liberal party said: 'The latest incident is far more serious than anything that has happened before. It represents a frontal challenge to British sovereignty, jurisdiction and control over Gibraltar's territorial sea.

'As such the UK must not only respond to Spain, but must also extract guarantees from Madrid that it will never happen again.'



STAND-OFF: The Royal Navy sent warships to see off Spanish vessels which had entered Gibraltar's waters

The Government said it had made strong protests to Madrid.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'It's a violation of British sovereignty and something we take very seriously indeed.

'We hope they will stop doing it.'

Madrid has not yet reacted.

A week before the latest incident a Spanish launch manned by paramilitary police was sent into Gibraltar's waters before being seen off by a Royal Navy patrol boat.