EU Inspects Spain-Gibraltar Border in Row

EU inspectors assessed customs controls at Gibraltar's border with Spain on Wednesday, aiming to soothe a feud between London and Madrid over the territory.

Workers who habitually cross the border complained that the visit should have been unannounced to avoid window-dressing by the Spanish border guards they blame for long queues at the crossing.

Britain accuses Spain of imposing stringent border checks since late July in retaliation for Gibraltar placing concrete blocks in the sea to protect the waters from over-fishing.

Spain complains that the blocks threaten the livelihoods of Spanish fishermen and blames Gibraltar for an increase in tobacco smuggling to the Spanish mainland.

The inspectors held a three-hour meeting with officials in Gibraltar and then walked to inspect the border crossing. They were scheduled to do the same later on the Spanish side.

Protesters from ASCTEG, a group representing Spanish workers in Gibraltar who must cross the border for their work, followed the inspectors, waving signs in protest at the border queues.

"When you come to inspect, the sensible thing to do is not to announce the day and to come in just like any other citizen and see what the queue is really like," said ASCTEG spokesman Juan Jose Uceda.

The Gibraltar government said there was a two-hour queue for traffic going into the territory at the moment the inspectors visited the border.

Miguel Puente, a spokesman for the European Commission in Spain, said "authorities on both sides of the border are collaborating fully and there is no interest in hiding anything because that eventually will be counter-productive."

He added that after the inspectors' visit, "it will take some time to analyse and digest the data."

The commission, the 28-nation union's executive arm, said the dispute over the concrete blocks is subject to a separate investigation.

Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in perpetuity in 1713 but has long argued that it should be returned to Spanish sovereignty. London says it will not do so against the wishes of Gibraltarians, who are staunchly pro-British.