Minister for Environment Prof John Cortes was in Brussels last week meeting with MEPs to present Gibraltar’s environmental credentials and reiterate the guarantees on environment that the UKL-EU Treaty enshrines.

But there was another initiative that he took the opportunity to promote during his visit - the protection of swifts.

Swifts are vulnerable throughout Europe due to the replacement of traditional nest sites on roofs by modern building techniques. Gibraltar solved the problem decades ago by making the provision of nest sites parts of the Planning conditions for new build and re-roofing. This followed an initiative by GONHS during the time that Prof Cortes was its General Secretary.

A campaign in UK led by author Hannah Bourne-Taylor, and supported by Minister Cortes, has so far only been successful in Scotland, where the Scottish Parliament voted in favour of making swift broke provisions a legal requirement.

The campaign now moves to Europe, with the aim of making swift nest provision a requirement in European law. During his time in Brussels, Minister Cortes discussed the Scottish initiative with Hazel Cameron and Miranda McIntosh of the Scottish Mission to the EU, and with Green MEP Jutta Paulus, from Germany, with a view to progressing the matter.

Minister Cortes said, “Providing swift nests in buildings has been proven, in Gibraltar, to halt the decline in the species, and actually create new colonies. I will continue to work with Hannah and other campaigners to promote this simple, inexpensive, measure, in Europe and the rest of the UK”.