By Andrew Jay Rosenbaum
ANKARA
The status of Gibraltar is once again the subject of controversy, as Spain and the U.K. are embroiled in a dispute over jurisdiction on the tiny territory at the tip of the Iberian peninsula.
On Monday, there were again protests from the British Foreign Office for what it called "a clear violation of U.K. sovereignty". The British Royal Navy on Sunday escorted Spanish police ships out of waters around Gibraltar, which the U.K. claimed as British.
"Repeated incursions by Spanish patrols into the waters around Gibraltar are a clear violation of U.K. sovereignty," British Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire told the press on Monday.
A Spanish Foreign Ministry official denied any violation, stating that "the waters were Spanish". The Spanish police boats were reportedly chasing drug smugglers who were dumping illegal cargo as they fled.
Gibraltar was ceded to the U.K by Spain in 1713, but the Spanish government has recently sought to reclaim it.
On Sept. 5, 2014, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy reminded U.K. authorities of the "opposing positions" that Spain and the U.K. hold about the status of Gibraltar. A year earlier, in September 2013, Rajoy told the UN General Assembly that "the status of Gibraltar should be renegotiated", calling the current situation “anachronistic”, and demanding that the territory be ceded to Spain.
"Gibraltar is the only remaining colony in the 21st century," Rajoy said at the time.
There have been over 600 disputed incursions by Spanish government ships into the waters around Gibraltar over the past two years, according to the U.K. Foreign Ministry.
There have also been repeated disputes between Spain and the U.K. about managing the waters around the isthmus, as both countries have raised conservation and environmental issues with the European Commission. Gibraltar is subject to EU law, although it is not entitled to participate in all Commission programs, the customs union, value-added tax legislation, and the Common Agricultural Policy.
When Spain joined the EU in 1986, a condition of its membership was that the status of Gibraltar should be reviewed. No clear decision has ever emerged from European lawmakers, or from the courts, on the issue.
Hence tension over the status of the isthmus continues to rankle Spanish-British relations to this day.
