EU reminds Spain border tax ‘illegal’ as Gibraltar row intensifies
21 Aug 2013 3:29 AM IST
The European Commission said on Monday that imposing taxes or toll fees at EU member-state borders would be ‘illegal’, as a diplomatic tug-of-war between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar escalated.
‘We can confirm that any tax (or) fees imposed at the border of a member state will be illegal under EU law’, Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly told a news briefing in Brussels.
Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo had suggested in a media interview at the start of August that a 50-euro (USD 66) tax would be levied for travellers entering Spain from Gibraltar.
The idea provoked outrage amid a growing row around the tiny British outpost at the tip of Spain.
Bailly was answering a ‘theoretical’ question from a journalist, on the day British warship HMS Westminster docked in Gibraltar in a naval exercise coinciding with escalating tensions over sovereignty and fishing rights.
The Commission's reminder of EU law came a day after dozens of Spanish fishing boats sailed to waters around Gibraltar to demand it remove 70 concrete blocks it has dropped in their fishing grounds. Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso was to speak by telephone with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy today, Bailly also said, after the EU leader held a similar conversation with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday.
‘We can confirm that any tax (or) fees imposed at the border of a member state will be illegal under EU law’, Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly told a news briefing in Brussels.
Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo had suggested in a media interview at the start of August that a 50-euro (USD 66) tax would be levied for travellers entering Spain from Gibraltar.
The idea provoked outrage amid a growing row around the tiny British outpost at the tip of Spain.
Bailly was answering a ‘theoretical’ question from a journalist, on the day British warship HMS Westminster docked in Gibraltar in a naval exercise coinciding with escalating tensions over sovereignty and fishing rights.
The Commission's reminder of EU law came a day after dozens of Spanish fishing boats sailed to waters around Gibraltar to demand it remove 70 concrete blocks it has dropped in their fishing grounds. Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso was to speak by telephone with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy today, Bailly also said, after the EU leader held a similar conversation with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday.
Next Story
