Cameron urges EU to send monitoring team to Gibraltar

British Prime Minister David Cameron has asked the EU president to send a monitoring team to the border between Spain and Gibraltar.

In a telephone call to José Manuel Barroso, Cameron expressed “serious concerns” over Spain’s increased border checks and requested the team’s dispatch, “urgently”.

Cameron says the checks are “politically motivated and disproportionate,” as tensions over the diplomatic dispute between London and Madrid heighten.

He says Britain is actively considering legal action and has urged the EU president to launch an investigation along the border, emphasizing the Commission has a responsibility to that effect as it should oversee the application of EU law.

“President Barroso responded that the European commission are closely monitoring the situation and that, following a thorough legal assessment, they would not hesitate to take any measures necessary to uphold EU law,” a spokesperson for Cameron’s office said.

Madrid says the extra border checks are necessary to combat smuggling, which leaks into Europe through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Tensions between Spain and Britain over the tiny territory flared up last month when boats from Gibraltar dumped concrete blocks into the sea to create an artificial reef.

Gibraltar was occupied by Britain in 1713 and has been since a bone of contention between Madrid and London.

The United Nations lists the strategic 6.8-kilometer area that overlooks the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean as a territory waiting to be decolonized.