Spain has threatened to file a legal protest over the UK's plan to create a new £300 million project in Gibraltar after they claimed it was in violation of their earlier agreed-upon rules. Express UK reported that Spain insisted it 'violated' a 'defined maritime-territorial' space that set the boundaries on what can or what can't be built.
Gibraltar bared plans for its Victoria Keys complex project, a plan that will create 100,000 sq meters of residential and commercial land located on the west end of Coaling Island. The Spanish government issued a diplomatic protest, citing the plan to use landfills to fill out the space requirements for the 'massive' complex.
This effectively adds an additional space of more than 60,000 sq meters to the Rock. Spain, citing this fact, said that Gibraltar effectively will grab land from the sea and, by doing so, occupy waters that belonged to Madrid. Gibraltar, for their part, has denied the accusations, saying that the complex will remain within the effective jurisdiction of the island.
Reuters reported a victory on the part of Spain in the current spat with Britain, citing a European Parliament that ruled in favor of the Spanish. According to the report, the law referred to the peninsula as 'colony of the British Crown' a step towards the legitimacy of their claims that Gibraltar is trying to overstep boundaries.
This may show that the European Union may be giving Britain a taste of its own medicine, a diminished influence once it is no longer with the European Union. The row may also show how the European Parliament will rule, taking the side of a member against a non-member country in international rulings.
This reference to Gibraltar as a 'colony' left a bad taste with London while the bill, already approved by the EU commission, guarantees Britons that they would be able to stay within the European Union for up to 90 days without visas, even beyond Brexit and even without a standing deal on the matter between Britain and the EU.
Meanwhile, the people behind the projects are defending it, saying that this will 'encourage and facilitate' relocation from Britain and to its Gibraltar territory. According to the report, workers and companies moving to Gibraltar will be able to do so easily, thanks to the embattled complex.
