EU gives approval to Spain’s increased checks at Gibraltar border

Spain did not infringe European regulations by establishing tougher criteria for people wanting to cross the border from Gibraltar, the European Commission has said.

But the EU report also called on the governments of the British territory and Spain for solutions to “the heavy traffic volumes in a relatively confined space and the increase in tobacco smuggling.”

After traveling to the crossing point at La Línea de la Concepción on September 25 on a fact-finding mission, European officials said they did not find any wrongdoing in Spain’s decision to increase border inspections.

“The Commission has not found evidence to conclude that the checks on persons and goods as operated by the Spanish authorities at the crossing point of La Línea de la Concepción have infringed the relevant provisions of Union law,” reads the report.

The intensified border controls came after Gibraltar sank large concrete blocks into the Bay of Algeciras

The intensified border controls came after Gibraltar sank large concrete blocks into the Bay of Algeciras, presumably to hinder the work of Spanish fishermen in what Rock authorities claim to be their own waters. Spanish and Gibraltarian authorities have been caught up for months in an escalating row over fishing rights in the area.

Brussels did not issue an opinion on whether British Prime Minister David Cameron was right when he said that the checks were politically motivated. “We looked at the facts. And the experts have seen the bottlenecks, the long lineups and the workers’ complaints. That is a fact. And that is why we are proposing solutions to these problems,” said the spokesman for the Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.

The European Commission has sent letters to Madrid and London with recommendations on how to address the issues of traffic jams and tobacco smuggling. The letter to Madrid recommends optimizing the physical space available on the Spanish side of the crossing point in view of ensuring a greater fluidity of traffic; optimizing risk-based profiling rather than conducting many random border controls; and exchanging information with the United Kingdom on tobacco smuggling.

Cameron’s government, for its part, is also asked to “develop risk-based profiling; optimize legislation and safeguards in view of contributing to an efficient fight against tobacco smuggling; and developing the exchange of intelligence on tobacco smuggling with Spain.”

Although these are non-binding recommendations, the Commission said it will send out another mission six months from now to see whether its recommendations are being followed.

Environmental and fiscal concerns were left out of this inspection, despite the fact that Spain raised both issues with the EU in August.

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría said on Friday that “the executive is satisfied because Brussels said Spain is not violating community regulations. It has proven us right.”