Spanish complaint over Eastside project sent back to La Linea court on appeal - report 

A criminal complaint lodged by Spain’s state environmental prosecution service over the Eastside project has been referred on appeal back to a La Linea court that had ruled it was outside its remit, according to Spanish press reports.  

The complaint alleges that reclamation work for the Eastside project could constitute an offence under Spanish law. 

Madrid considers the waters around the Rock as its own, a position robustly rejected by the UK and Gibraltar. 

The La Linea court of first instance had referred the case to the national court in Madrid over concerns about jurisdiction, given the underlying diplomatic tension. 

But the decision was appealed by Spain’s environmental prosecution service and now, according to Campo newspaper Europa Sur, an appeal court in Algeciras has sent the case back to La Linea, reflecting the Spanish Government’s traditional political position on Gibraltar’s waters. 

The appeal decision said “the reasoning of the investigating court must be refuted” because, under of the Treaty of Utrecht, Spain ceded to Great Britain “the City, the Castle, the fortress and the defences of Gibraltar, but at no point the waters” surrounding it, Europa Sur reported, citing the court’s decision.  

“They are not only currently Spanish, but have never ceased to be so,” the court reportedly said. 

“It is evident that, for crimes committed in Spanish territorial waters, the competent judicial district is that which corresponds territorially to the affected maritime area…that of La Línea de la Concepción.” 

“Therefore, Spanish jurisdiction is competent to hear the events that occurred in that maritime area, which could be classified as environmental crimes and must be subject to Spanish jurisdiction,” the ruling added.  

“It is evident that, for crimes committed in Spanish territorial waters, the competent judicial district is that which corresponds territorially to the affected maritime area, according to the place where the crime was committed.” 

“In this case, due to its peculiarities, it must correspond to the closest judicial district, which is La Línea de la Concepción.” 

It is not yet clear what steps the La Linea court will take following the appeal decision. 

For Gibraltar though, the position is unequivocal. 

The UK and Gibraltar Government’s longstanding position is that Spain’s traditional political view on Gibraltar’s waters has no binding legal effect of any kind. 

Last May, after the issue first came to light, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told Parliament that the complaint, depending on how it unfolds, could lead to an international tribunal being asked to decide who the waters around Gibraltar belong to. 

Responding to questions from Opposition Leader Keith Azopardi, Mr Picardo said Gibraltar would “relish” such a “contest of jurisdictions”, which Spain has to date avoided. 

Spain has been challenged in the past to put its case before the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, which decides on marine territorial disputes. But Madrid has never taken up the offer. 

“The Government is diligently pursuing understanding all of the legal issues that could arise [from the complaint], but in particular not just in Spanish law, in public international law, which is what really matters here, and the contest of jurisdictions that could ensue,” Mr Picardo said at the time. 

“A contest of jurisdictions that I am sure he [Mr Azopardi], like I, would relish, because he will recall, as I recall, that it was the Spanish who refused to take the matter of Gibraltar's waters to the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea when it was offered by the United Kingdom.” 

“It is the Spanish that have run scared of a determination by an independent international tribunal of the issue of jurisdiction in the waters.” 

“And it is the Spanish that might end up putting it there if they were to seek to do something in their national courts that would make the matter justiciable in international fora, either at the suit of an individual - perhaps a developer, for example, that might find its rights somehow unfairly impaired – or at the suit of a government in some other guise, perhaps in terms of seeking an advisory opinion which doesn't require the other side to agree.” 

No.6 Convent Place says it applies the highest international standards of environmental protection in Gibraltar waters and abides with rules on the transboundary effects of land reclamation projects. 

The Government has also previously highlighted that during Gibraltar’s period of EU membership, the European Commission investigated Spanish complaints about the Eastside project and found that Gibraltar “had done everything properly and by the book, in full compliance with the law”.