Gibraltar, Britain's overseas territory at the foot of the Iberian Peninsula, is the site of a dispute threatening to challenge free movement of the people, one of the four pillars of the treaty of Rome. Currently EU citizens crossing the border between Gibraltar and Spain can be kept waiting for as long as eight hours with two-three hour queues almost the norm. There is absolutely no excuse for such behaviour.
Discrimination against Gibraltar is not new: they waited 25 years to get the right to vote in European Elections and even this required a decision by the European court of human rights in 1999 to force a UK government worried about Madrid's reaction to allow the people of Gibraltar to vote for the first time in June 2004.
Throughout all this period Gibraltar had a better track record of transposing relevant EU directives than a number of member states. One hopes the commission will not allow this issue to fester in the same way.
It's clear that the Spanish actions bear little relation to their ostensive purpose of customs control. The new draconian regime immediately followed a totally unrelated dispute over a new artificial reef built by Gibraltar near the maritime border. After all if it's about controlling smuggling from Gibraltar it's difficult to understand why the queues to enter Gibraltar can be as long as those to leave. Rarely do criminals smuggle goods from high to low tax regimes.
Only after hundreds of complaints by aggrieved citizens and the intervention of both the Gibraltar and UK governments did the commission finally react with a belated fact-finding mission. Many of the facts were already clear.
Last Summer in answering a question from MEP colleague Claude Moraes the commission clearly laid down Spain's entitlement, 'all people entering and exiting the Schengen area, including those enjoying the union right of free movement, should undergo a minimum check to establish their identities on the basis of the production or presentation of their travel documents'.
The report made a series of recommendations with six-month grace for implementation. The commission has offered financial assistance to the Spanish authorities removing one excuse not to act. Despite this - four months on - little has changed for the better, with now even pedestrian queues hours long of cross-frontier workers, families with children and even disabled people. Spain claims inspections are intelligence-driven, yet Spanish companies regularly receive advanced notice of disruptions. If only all smugglers worked to a timetable.
There is an opportunity for a rising tide to float all ships. Gibraltar's expanding economy in online gaming, financial services and tourism can bring increased prosperity to the wider region with growing demands for cross-border workers and rising incomes spent locally.
The frontier queues threaten Spanish jobs, those who are consistently delayed from getting to work in Gibraltar and those in the Spanish travel industry bringing people to the Rock.
Whatever the endless history in the 21st century people have the right to determine their own futures. Back to the Future was a film not a political programme and the sooner Madrid realises it the better for everyone concerned - including the Spaniards in the region.