New tobacco regulations to be taken to court

The 'loop' last night
(Photo: europasur.es)

EU and Foreign Ministry to hear protest about border queues

GIBRALTAR The Asociación Sociocultural de Trabajadores Españoles en Gibraltar (Ascteg) announced yesterday that it would be going to court over the matter of the new tobacco allowances and geographical limitations scheduled to be put into effect on January 1. The organization has hired an attorney with accreditation in Spain and Gibraltar to test the constitutionality of the measure announced by Madrid last week. Juan José Uceda, spokesperson for the Spanish workers association, said thatYOU WILL SOON BE UNABLE TO

READ ARTICLES SUCH AS THIS WITHOUT A SUBSCRIPTIONAscteg believes the new regulations to be 'discriminatory' and 'unconstitutional' because it segregates one part of the population over the other. Measures, he said, would be taken as soon as the new becomes official when it is published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE). The first of these measures would be to denounce the matter to the Defensor del Pueblo Andaluz (Ombudsman for Andalucía) but, says Uceda, 'we are prepared to go all the way to the Constitutional Court.'

EU to hear protest about border queues

Acsteg considers that recent, unusually long border queues -some lasting up to four hours- have been abusive and 'unjustifiable' towards Spanish workers on the Rock, and the matter is to be taken up with the European Union and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Uceda says that the queues and treatment at the border are the result of government policies that are aimed at harassing the people and government of Gibraltar but 'in the meantime, it affects local residents as well.' He also put the queues down to the fact that Britain refuses to negotiate the Rock's sovereignty.

The subject of unemployment in Spain came up, too. Ascteg's spokesperson said, 'If our government can't offer us employment, then at least don't interfere with what we do have.'

PSOE agrees with complaints

In a press release, the governing party of La Línea, PSOE, says that Guardia Civil and National Police at border controls are 'following orders from the PP government in Madrid. It is unfair and unsupportive that the people of La Línea have once again to withstand the erroneous foreign policy designed in Madrid ... It is a direct attack on th economy of La Línea, whose residents have to rely on the economy of Gibraltar.'