UK Asks EU to Send Monitors to Gibraltar's Border to Spain

Urgency requested

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday asked European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to "urgently" send monitors to Gibraltar's border with Spain where tightened security checks are fuelling a row between the two countries.

Cameron raised the matter in a phone call with Barroso on Friday, saying he had serious concerns that these extra checks were "politically motivated and disproportionate" and "illegitimate" under European Union laws.

"We believe that the European Commission, as guardian of the treaties, should investigate the issue," said a spokesman from Cameron's office.

Cameron's intervention reflects growing British frustration that a row over an artificial reef built by Gibraltar, a contested British overseas territory, has become one of the worst in years between the two EU member states with no sign of ending.