Gib tug-of-war: European Commission finds 'no problems' with tax evasion

EUROPEAN Commissioners have refused to investigate Gibraltar for 'money-laundering' or 'tax avoidance' as requested by Spain's PP government and insists it will merely concentrate on border queues and inspections, and smuggling of contraband goods and people.

Spokeswoman for the EC, Pia Åhrenkilde, said in a press conference today (Tuesday): “The brief for this fact-finding mission was to investigate purely those issues which the EC president, José Manuel Durão Barroso had occasion to discuss with Rajoy and Cameron – that is quite clear.”

Spanish president Mariano Rajoy had called for the Commission to 'monitor' the Rock's economic activity and 'ensure it did not breach European laws' concerning money-laundering, tax avoidance or smuggling.

EC spokesman Olivier Bailly told Rajoy that the reason this matter was not included as part of the fact-finding mission was because such issues are 'discussed regularly in the Council of Europe with representatives of all countries' and 'whenever there is a legislative proposal related to tax affairs'.

Bailly said this was 'not within the remit' of the EC and that they had received 'no formal complaints' about tax issues in Gibraltar.

“I have not noticed any particular problems,” Bailly told Rajoy. “Gibraltar has applied EU legislation correctly in this respect and we do not consider there have been any breaches of European law.”

But Bailly added that the Commission had indeed received 'and continues to receive' a 'series of complaints' about the border inspections by Spanish authorities, and that all complainants would be informed of the outcome of the fact-finding mission, which is expected to take place throughout September.

Commuters of Spanish and British nationality – both Gibraltarian and UK expatriates – have reported seeing border police 'smashing up people's property for no reason' and 'in front of everyone', and being threatened with legal action when they protested about the queues.

Reports have cited cases of swastikas painted on Gibraltar-registered cars and some of these vehicles being torched or vandalised in La Línea de la Concepción, the closest town in the province of Cádiz to the border and the one from which most of the aggrieved fishermen come.

In the meantime, the head minister of Gibraltar, Fabián Picardo has flown to London to meet with British PM David Cameron and foreign affairs minister William Hague.

And Catalunya's regional president Artur Mas has outraged Spaniards by having his foreign minister contact Picardo and offer his full support.

In another twist in the ongoing saga of the Rock's sovereignty, the PP mayor of Tarifa (Cádiz) is rumoured to have illegally sold sand from the Valdevaqueros dunes to the government of Gibraltar to allow them to build the concrete blocks for the artificial reef which fishermen claim has destroyed their patch, and which sparked off the initial conflict between the UK, Spain and the Rock.

Today (Tuesday)'s queues were said to be less than an hour long, but yesterday – August bank holiday Monday in both the UK and Gibraltar – saw tailbacks of several kilometres at the border and delays for drivers of over three hours.

Border police on the Spanish side claim this is due to the higher volume of traffic seen at the frontier on bank holiday weekends, due to an influx and outpouring of tourists.