David Crausby – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-06-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the European Commission in respect of petitions from the government of Gibraltar for a representative to monitor the border crossing.

Mr David Lidington

The delays imposed by the Spanish authorities at the border with Gibraltar continue to have a significant impact, resulting in significant changes in behaviour at the border: visitor arrivals in Gibraltar are down and vehicle traffic has fallen. The Government is concerned about the impact that border delays are having on businesses in both Spain and Gibraltar.

Since the beginning of the disruption last summer, the Government has raised this issue regularly with the European Commission. We recently sent detailed information on the delays, supplied by Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar, to the Director General for Home Affairs, together with an update on the steps taken by Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar to address the recommendations made to them by the Commission. Ministers have also been in direct contact with the Commission, including the Commissioner for Home Affairs. In our conversations we stressed the need for the Commission to make follow-up visits to monitor the continuing delays. We continue to request that the Commission urge Spain to act on their recommendations and return border checks to reasonable and proportionate levels.