Storm over Gibraltar threatens fares deal

Press, 27 June 1987, Page 10

Storm over Gibraltar threatens fares deal

NZPA-Reuter Luxemburg An unresolved row between Spain and Britain over the disputed British colony of Gibraltar is threatening to torpedo a hard-won European Community accord on cutting air fares and liberalising air services. Intensive negotiations yesterday and an appeal by the Community commission’s president, Jacques Delors, to the British and Spanish Prime Ministers failed to settle the row. Community officials said the issue would now be put to Foreign Ministers of member nations in Brussels at the week-end and may have to be added to an already weighty agenda facing leaders at their summit meeting in the Belgian capital next week.

All 11 of Madrid’s Community partners have accepted the package of liberalisation measures. The hope is that Spain will lift its blockage by Tuesday so that Community transport Ministers can formally adopt it by a crucial end of month deadline. But the Spanish and British Ministers, Abel Caballero and Paul Channon, were both pessimistic about the chances of a quick solution after yesterday’s talks. Madrid, which does not recognise British sovereignty over Gibraltar, a rocky peninsula oh Spain’s southern tip, wants the colony’s airport excluded from the package. London has refused. Diplomats said Britain and other Community States were angered by Spain’s failure to raise

any problem over Gibraltar until the very end of more than 18 months of tough negotiations.

Mr Channon warned that if the package did not go through by the end of the month “there is a real risk that it will be years before there will be better services and cheaper fares for Community travellers.” Community officials ,said formal approval of the deal could be set back months or years by new J Community procedures that come into force on July 1. They expressed fears that the package could fall apart in the meantime. The measures agreed are a first step towards introducing genuine competition in place feof the cartel run by Community airlines.