Vox asks in Congress that Gibraltar stop being a base for nuclear submarines

The National Security Commission will also debate an initiative of the PP to create a single command in cybersecurity

MADRID, 27 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Vox wants Spain to convince the United Kingdom to stop using Gibraltar as a "base or workshop" for nuclear submarines, with the "danger" that this poses to "Spanish National Security".

In a non-legal proposal that it will defend this Tuesday in the Mixed Commission (Congress-Senate) on National Security, Vox maintains that both the naval base and the waters of Gibraltar are of Spanish sovereignty. And therefore all the warships that remain docked there, as well as the ships that enter and leave the port of Gibraltar, including nuclear submarines, "are doing so in Spanish territory."

But he also considers that the presence there of nuclear submarines "represents a strong conflict with the Spanish national policy on nuclear matters", since Spain has a "very restrictive" use of nuclear energy, which is allowed only for civil uses.

For this reason, although he assumes that Spain "must be aware" of the importance that Gibraltar represents for the United Kingdom in terms of security and defence, he believes that "it is not possible to ignore the fact that both the Spanish territorial integrity and Security are at stake National of the region".

Vox summarizes with all this that the presence of nuclear submarines in Gibraltar supposes both an "affront" to Spanish sovereignty and a risk for the area, since "Spain does not have the possibility of monitoring or controlling in any way the activity carried out by or on said nuclear submarines that are within its own territory".

Consequently, he wants Congress to urge the Government to "carry out all necessary diplomatic actions" to encourage the United Kingdom to "cease" the use of Gibraltar as a "workshop or refuge" for nuclear submarines.

The presence of this type of ship in the area is common, arousing criticism from environmental organizations, which describe these ships as "floating bombs." It is also a docking place on other occasions for North American submarines.

The National Security Commission will also debate in Congress an initiative presented by the PP that calls for the creation of a single structure and command to coordinate all the responsibilities of the State in terms of cybersecurity, including critical infrastructures.

The 'popular' maintain that the current cybersecurity governance model is "inefficient" for the "exponential increase" in attacks suffered by Spain. This is attributed to a lack of human and material resources and the absence of a centralized command.

Thus, it reviews the various centers currently in charge of monitoring cyberspace and requests that the new single command be based on the National Cryptological Center (CCN-CERT), dependent on the National Intelligence Center (CNI).

In his opinion, security in the cyber world should be a priority "for reasons of National Defense" and the current structure made sense when there was a moderate number of attacks, but not now that they have multiplied "exponentially": it has passed from suffering 81,304 cyberattacks as of December 31, 2017 to exceeding 200,000 as of December 31, 2020.