Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs written question – answered at on 15 December 2009.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
(1) what assessment he has made of the merits of the government of Gibraltar's application to the European Court of First Instance against Commission Decision 2009/95/EC updating a list of sites of Community importance for the Mediterranean biogeographical region; and if he will make a statement;
(2) what discussions his Department had with (a) the Gibraltarian Government, (b) the Spanish Government and (c) the European Commission prior to Commission Decision 2009/95/EC updating a list of sites of Community importance for the Mediterranean biogeographical region; and if he will make a statement;
(3) what representations he has made to (a) the Gibraltarian Government, (b) the Spanish Government and (c) the European Commission on Commission Decision 2009/95/EC updating a list of sites of Community importance for the Mediterranean biogeographical region since the decision was made; and if he will make a statement;
(4) what his Department's policy is on the government of Gibraltar's application for the annulment of the Spanish site of Community importance known as Estrecho Oriental; and if he will make it his policy to challenge any new decision by the European Commission adopting an updated list of such sites which does not recognise the sovereignty of Gibraltar over its territorial waters.
We are fully confident of the United Kingdom's sovereignty over British Gibraltar Territorial Waters (BGTW).
The UK has sought and received permission from the European General Court to intervene in support of the Government of Gibraltar's application for annulment of Commission Decision 2009/95/EC updating a list of sites of Community importance for the Mediterranean biogeographical region insofar as it relates to the Estrecho Oriental site. The court has indicated that it will hear admissibility arguments first. Our written intervention on admissibility issues will be submitted to the court in January 2010 and we cannot comment further on the contents of that intervention at this stage.
We fully support the Government of Gibraltar on this issue and remain in close contact with them. We have made representations to both the European Commission and Spain in order to object to their actions on this matter and have placed on record that the UK does not recognise the validity of the Estrecho Oriental listing. We object that Spain should have sought to have an area of BGTW listed and that this listing should have been approved. The UK is the only state competent to propose a Site of Community Importance within BGTW. During the recent negotiations on the latest proposed Decision updating the list of sites in the Mediterranean, the UK voted against the proposal because of the inclusion of the Spanish designation of Estrecho Oriental. We are considering our options in the event of a new Commission Decision including this site on its list.
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