2024-01-29 00:52:47
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation must report on the fishing ground for nuclear submarines that Gibraltar has become for decades. This is stated in a resolution of the Transparency Council at the request of a private citizen, the lawyer Guillermo Rocafort, to whom José Manuel Albares’ own portfolio denied the data he requested. Specifically, the lawyer requested “a copy of the communication from the British Government” of the stay in the Rock of the submersible “HMS Ambush”, on March 3, “as well as all communications of the presence of nuclear submarines in Gibraltar since 2018 ».
Foreign Affairs denied “part of the requested information” alleging “reasons of national security, defense, international relations and public security”, and the interested party filed a claim on June 28, 2023 before the Council for Transparency and Good Governance (CTBG). On the following day, this body transferred the demand to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the sending of the complete copy of the file derived from the request for access to information and the report with the allegations that it considered pertinent. On July 19, “a letter was received reiterating the reasons why part of the requested information has been denied,” the CTBG alludes in its latest document, dated January 23, in which it recalls that “the right of access to information” is “a right of constitutional rank that enjoys broad recognition in our system, so any restriction on its effectiveness must be subject to a strict, if not restrictive, interpretation of the limits.” applicable that, in any case, must be justified in an express and detailed manner that allows controlling the veracity and proportionality of the established restriction”, as the Supreme Court also establishes.
In this sense, the Transparency Council says in its writing, to which LA RAZÓN has had access, that “the requested ministry has not explained the reasons why it applies the aforementioned limits, limiting itself only to citing them.”
Considers that the “absence of this justification in itself evidences the total non-observance of the requirements that the Transparency Law demands to impose a limitation on the exercise of the right of access to public information.” He states that “not the slightest effort has been made to explain to what extent knowledge of what was requested may cause harm to national security, defense, foreign relations and public safety, nor has the public interest been taken into consideration.” in the access to weigh it with the eventual damage that said access would cause to the protected property. “By acting in this way,” he warns, “the mandate of article 14.2” of the norm is not complied with, “preventing the control of the veracity and proportionality of the restriction established based on the express and detailed justification of the decision-making body, as requested.” the Supreme”.
“He has not made the slightest effort” to explain why he alleged “harm to national security” for not providing the requested data.
In conclusion, the Transparency Council upholds the claim and asks the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to “resolve by granting access to the requested information or, where appropriate, duly justify the need and proportionality of the application of legal limits to the part of the information to which access is denied.
Rocafort has been systematically denouncing the danger that, in his opinion, nuclear submarines pose in Gibraltar, where more than one hundred nuclear-powered submersibles have passed since – between 2000 and 2001 – the “HMS Tireless” was repaired, according to calculations by Verdemar Ecologistas en Acción. Thanks to the lawyer’s concern about this point, it has become known that Spain does not have a specific plan in the event of an accident, as the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) itself recognized. Rocafort also complained to the Andalusian Ombudsman, who delegated to his national counterpart, Ángel Gabilondo, who finally accepted the CSN’s allegations as valid, although the interested party was not convinced and insisted that Spain “should have its own specific security and nuclear emergency plan for the Campo de Gibraltar area, as the United Kingdom has for the colony of Gibraltar and all the areas adjacent to its nuclear submarine bases in the United Kingdom.
In July 2016, the Astute-class HMS Ambush, the Royal Navy’s largest nuclear-powered attack ship, collided with a merchant ship off the coast of Gibraltar, despite having one of the sonar systems. most advanced in the world. She had already been to the Rock two years before.
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