Croatia to Declare Exclusive Economic Zone in Adriatic

The Croatian government on Monday decided to declare an exclusive economic zone, EEZ, in the Adriatic Sea. Parliament will hold an extraordinary session this week to confirm the decision.

Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman told the session that after talks with his Slovenian and Italian counterparts, "an understanding was reached" that Croatia and Italy would declare an EZZ after a trilateral meeting in January next year.

An EEZ is a martitime zone outside and along the territorial waters prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, UNCLOS, over which a state has exclusive rights in terms of exploitation of resources, including energy production from water and wind.

Croatia decided on the move following the announcement of its neighbour, Italy, which, in order to protect its national interests, has announced the declaration of an EEZ that will give it greater control over the area outside its territorial waters, especially when it comes to "third-country" fishermen outside the EU.

Last month, the Italian and Croatian foreign ministers, Grlic Radman and Luigi Di Maio, agreed on declaring an EEZ in the Adriatic together.

Croatia already mulled a similar initiative. In 2003, it declared a Protected Ecological Fishery Zone, or ZERP, which regulates an area in Croatia's territorial and international waters in the Adriatic.

Since then, the country had been locked in a dispute over its ZERP with the European Union, which at one time was threatening Zagreb's bid to join the bloc. Italy and Slovenia said the area had to be shared between the three countries and accused Croatia of breaking EU regulations.

According to the Croatian Foreign Ministry, "subsequent decisions of 2004, 2006 and 2008...