EMEA News
Spain Vows to Regulate Gibraltar Bunkering
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel García-Margallo says the nation will begin regulating bunkering in waters of the British territory of Gibraltar as part of plans to increase its role there, Merco Press reports.
The announcement follows an ongoing conflict in which Spanish media reported that the Royal Gibraltar Police was "harassing" Spanish fishermen in Gibraltar waters.
The European Union has approved a section of the oceans around Gibraltar as a nature protection site, and Spain contends it is acting to defend the protected area.
Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo vowed to defend the territory against what he called encroachment by Spain, which ceded the Mediterranean peninsula to Britain in 1713 but has argued it should be returned to Spanish sovereignty, according to an AFP report.
"We will never concede one grain of sand, one breath of our air or one drop of our waters. Gibraltar will never be Spanish," said Picardo said.
Gibraltar's seas are surrounded on two sides by Spanish territorial waters along Spain's Southern coast, but in 2002 the area's inhabitants overwhelmingly rejected the notion of shared sovereignty between Spain and Britain.
The Port of Gibraltar is one of the largest bunkering ports in the Mediterranean, with 4.7 million tonnes of bunkers delivered to 6,708 ships in 2009, according to the Gibraltar Port Authority.
[Update February 18, 2013: The Port of Gibraltar have since updated their website to indicate 4.4 million tonnes of bunkers were delivered in 2009]
