Spain told Britain on Tuesday it must remove 70 concrete blocks dropped into the waters off Gibraltar before Madrid will agree to dialogue in a heated dispute over the British outpost.
In an article in the Wall Street Journal, foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo sharply criticised Gibraltar’s creation of the reef last month in disputed waters that were used by Spanish fishermen.
Spain is willing to restart a dialogue with Britain and it will accept the creation of ad hoc forums that include Gibraltar and the neighbouring Spanish province Andalusia for issues relating to residents on both sides of the border, Garcia-Margallo said.
‘But as Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, earlier this month had observed to his British counterpart David Cameron; it is first necessary for UK to show that it intends to undo the damage that has already been caused, in particular by removing the concrete blocks.’
The Gibraltar government says the concrete reef in the Bay of Gibraltar will regenerate marine life and argues that the Spanish raked for shellfish there — illegally in its waters.
But Garcia-Margallo said Spain had ‘no doubt’ about its sovereignty over the waters, arguing that they were never included in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht under which Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in perpetuity.
In an article in the Wall Street Journal, foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo sharply criticised Gibraltar’s creation of the reef last month in disputed waters that were used by Spanish fishermen.
Spain is willing to restart a dialogue with Britain and it will accept the creation of ad hoc forums that include Gibraltar and the neighbouring Spanish province Andalusia for issues relating to residents on both sides of the border, Garcia-Margallo said.
‘But as Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, earlier this month had observed to his British counterpart David Cameron; it is first necessary for UK to show that it intends to undo the damage that has already been caused, in particular by removing the concrete blocks.’
The Gibraltar government says the concrete reef in the Bay of Gibraltar will regenerate marine life and argues that the Spanish raked for shellfish there — illegally in its waters.
But Garcia-Margallo said Spain had ‘no doubt’ about its sovereignty over the waters, arguing that they were never included in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht under which Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in perpetuity.