EU angers UK with support for Spain's Gibraltar airport claims

[kelvedon]

Yes, as opusman says, this particular spat is over the land which the airport sits on. It’s an isthmus, or narrow strip of land that connects the rock of Gibraltar to the Spanish mainland.
The rock was ceeded in the 17th century to the UK but not apparently the land bridge.
As I mentioned before, I think it’s just the Spanish government trying to unify the country on a common cause, i.e. reclamation of Gibraltar, mollifying the country’s concerns about Catalonian independence.
Earlier this year the Spanish government successfully lobbied the EU to describe Gibraltar as a colony in its legislation to allow visa free travel for UK citizens post brexit.

 

[YSSY]

What about Ceuta or Melilla, are these going to be handed over to Morocco? What about the Canary Islands?
The EU and UK relations are spiralling down hill. It does make you wonder whether brexit could devastate the EU and the EU economy (which is a major ponzi scheme at present).

 

[Franky]

rescue who ?

The germans must be extremely worried about decreasing sales of german made cars.

Agree - and not all jobs are in the car industry, I read somewhere recently that there are 80K German workers involved in manufacturing industries which export to the UK.

 

[Flashback]

Having visited Gibraltar last year – such an odd place – I'm not sure I understand how the airport is (other than technically) in Spain, considering the border control point (which I would imagine HAS to be in UK territory) is further North than the airport. Perhaps Spain should consider their own glass houses in North Africa – cough, Ceuta & Melilla – before picking up a stone.

Not sure where the border control is matters i.e. if you get the Eurostar for example, you technically enter the UK before you've physically left France and vice versa in return. As @kelvedon has said, it's more so a play at getting the land back under the guise of Brexit. I suppose they had to try, right?!

 

[Isochronous]

The spiteful and thuggish conduct of the EU in these Brexit negotiations is a chilling warning to the rest of Europe - a union that relies on aggression and intimidation to cower European countries into subservient ongoing membership rather than the merits of closer collaboration. Like the USSR the EU will one day crumble from within.

That being said, the greatest difficult for the UK isn't the aggression of the EU but the fact that its governing class is dominated by self-loathing Remoaners who want to sabotage Brexit from within.

 

[opusman]

Spiteful and thuggish? USSR? What a load of utter and complete rubbish. The EU is simply following its rules (which the UK helped set in the first place). The problem is that what the UK wanted is impossible.

 

[drron]

But the UK's trade with Europe was already declining before David Cameron announced the referendum on EU membership.

 

[opusman]

I'm not sure what that proves except that clearly the UK did not need to leave the EU in order to trade with the rest of the world?

(By the way, this is entirely because the "rest of the world" (mostly China and India) is growing quicker than the the EU. It doesn't mean trade with the EU has fallen in absolute terms. You can prove anything with graphs if you leave out enough context!)

 

[Andyc]

N

But the UK's trade with Europe was already declining before David Cameron announced the referendum on EU membership.

Not incorrect, but that vertical axis is a little deceptive. It masks the fact that 45% of exports were still going to the EU in 2013 - thats a big number.

 

[drron]

And the German economy splutters ahead.

.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/42...any-trouble-euro-areas-economic-engine?page=3

 

[opusman]

http://sporkforge.com/prmimg/05c7/fgbf81fa4fc0749ei000400006ed1c020.png

 

[Himeno]

Not sure where the border control is matters i.e. if you get the Eurostar for example, you technically enter the UK before you've physically left France and vice versa in return. As @kelvedon has said, it's more so a play at getting the land back under the guise of Brexit. I suppose they had to try, right?!

The Eurostar, and other UK/Schengen boarder crossings with 'off shore' controls, work the same way legally as the US preclearance.
The offshore checks allow you to legally enter the checking nation without checks on arrival. They don't mean that you have "entered" the other nation prior to physically departing the control hosting nation.
Within the security area of St Pancras station, or on the train itself prior to entering the Chunnel, you are still subject to UK law, even though you have "technically entered" the Schengen area.

 

[drron]

http://sporkforge.com/prmimg/05c7/fgbf81fa4fc0749ei000400006ed1c020.png

Well if you call an economic newsletter a right wing website so be it.
However if you think that way about the link I provided then you must accept that I will take any economic comment you make with a huge grain of salt.

 

[Franky]

My numbers may be rough, but as I recall when we crossed the Channel on a ferry in the early 00s, it was said that’s there were 1m trucks doing so each year. The last time we did that, around ‘14, it was said to be 8m trucks. There should still be the same demand for whatever came on those trucks, and the same desire and ability to produce it.

 

[trooper]

I think their complaint is that the land it sits on was not part of the original land ceded to Great Britain in the treaty of whatever/whenever (Utrecht? can't remember).

I agree that the Spanish enclaves in North Africa do somewhat weaken their case

Lol...not surprisingly that can be argued too.... given that the 1713 Treaty ceding the town included the "port, fortifications and forts thereunto belonging" and there were forts along what became the current frontier. Its been more than 300 years...I bet it isn't resolved anytime soon!

P.S. Can highly recommend Ernle Bradfords book "Gibraltar : the History of a Fortress" which I coincidentally pulled out of the bookcase a week ago...lol

 

[jb747]

Well, if Britain crashes out of the EU, isn't that 60-70 billion pounds that they can say goodbye to....

I guess the faceless men of Brussels can't handle the fact that nobody loves them.

 

[drron]

Which might be a lot less than they would have to pay out if Italy goes belly up which is a possibity.

Why Italy Could Be the Epicenter of the Next Financial Crisis

Why the European Debt Crisis Is about to Get Much Worse | Vijay Victor

The UK is one of the significant contributors to the common budget.

 

[Flashback]

Which might be a lot less than they would have to pay out if Italy goes belly up which is a possibity.

Why Italy Could Be the Epicenter of the Next Financial Crisis

Why the European Debt Crisis Is about to Get Much Worse | Vijay Victor

The UK is one of the significant contributors to the common budget.

Pulling up my annual self assessment return it shows the amount of money my tax was spent on broken into categories. One of those is the EU contribution.

 

[kelvedon]

Since it would appear the “ back stop” northern Irish border proposal is the main stumbling block preventing May’s brexit deal from passing through the UK parliament, I wonder if the Irish government will blink first since a hard brexit will be calamitous for the Irish ecomomy too.

Ireland’s central bank was quoted “A hard Brexit would cause a substantial reduction in output and employment.”

Hard Brexit will hit Irish jobs, economy and the banks

 

[Flashback]

If the deal doesn't pass there will then be a vote on whether a no deal Brexit will be accepted or not. If not, then there will be another vote to extend the article 50 deadline. The only problem there though is the rest of the EU member states would need to agree to that, so it's nice in principle but....