Gibraltar designates waters as Marine Conservation Protected Area

GIBRALTAR (Agencies) In a move that supposedly enhances the environmental protection of the site but also sends an unequivocal signal to Spain and the international community about its intentions, the Gibraltar Government has upgraded the nature designation assigned to a large area of Gibraltar’s territorial waters under EU laws, according to the Gibraltar Gazette referring to the Nature Protection Act (Amendment) Regulations 2011. This is a double-designation: as a Marine Conservation Protected Area and also as a Special Protection Area (SPA), a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. According to Opposition coalition GSLP/Libs the legislation>
defines the waters as follows: “BGTW means British Gibraltar Territorial Waters which is the area of sea, the sea bed and subsoil within the seaward limits of the territorial sea adjacent to Gibraltar under British sovereingty and which, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, currently extends to three nautical miles and to the median line in the Bay of Gibraltar.” This is an 'upgrade' of its former designation as a Site of Community Importance (SCI), about which Environment Minister Ernest Britto will have to inform the European Commission. The dispute about the waters surrounding the Rock between Spain, Gibraltar and Britain, continues unabated.