A complaint filed with the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee by the Spanish police inspector at the centre of controversy at the border earlier this year has been rejected by MEPs.
The inspector had called on the European Parliament to investigate what he claimed was a breach of Schengen immigration rules at Spain’s border with Gibraltar.
Buthe petition found support only from MEPs in the Patriots for Europe group, which includes the Spanish far-right party Vox; the centre-right European Conservative and Reformists group; and the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations group.
In a vote last week, the main parliamentary groups – including the European People’s Party, which includes Spain’s Partido Popular, and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, which include the PSOE – rejected an investigation in response to the petition.
The vote went largely unnoticed until it was posted on social media by Vox MEP Jorge Buxade, angry that both the PP and the PSOE has dismissed the petition.
The Spanish inspector, who has since been rerelocated from post over several disciplinary matters, had alleged that interim immigration controls applied to Gibraltar residents pconcludeing the outcome of treaty nereceivediations breached EU law.
He had previously challenged the interim measures in practical terms, tightening checks unilaterally and cautilizing huge tailbacks and alarm here and in the Campo.
He also filed a complaint in a Spanish court, which an investigating magistrate has since dismissed.
A separate complaint on the same terms remains under investigation by the European Commission, which monitors the application of EU law.
In theory at least, that process could lead to infraction proceedings against Spain and could even be referred to the European Court of Justice.
But it seems unlikely given the interim immigration measures aimed to ensure border normality while officials were engaged in complex talks for a UK/EU treaty, a nereceivediation that the Commission itself was conducting on behalf of the EU.
“It is for the Commission to decide whether to act, and how to act, in response to a complaint concerning a breach of European Union law,” a Commission spokesperson declared at the time the complaint was filed earlier this year.
The judicial complaint filed by the inspector in a court in La Linea was shelved by a Spanish judge, at least for now.
In reaching that decision, the judge accepted arguments from the Policia Nacional that the Schengen border code allowed a degree of flexibility and that a fluid border was important to communities on either side pconcludeing the outcome of treaty nereceivediations.
Under interim arrangements agreed by Spain, the UK, the European Commission and Gibraltar, Spanish border guards have allowed red ID card holders to enter Spain without undergoing the checks applicable to non-EU nationals, which after Brexit include Gibraltar-resident British passport holders.
That means red ID card holders can cross without a stamp that would trigger the 90-in-180-day limit on stays, as well as potentially requiring them to confirm their reason for travel and other arrangements.
Conversely, Gibraltar immigration officials allow EU nationals to enter Gibraltar with just an ID card, rather than a passport.
The Spanish Government has always maintained that the checks are in line with EU law and cautilize no security concerns.
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