Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone
Encyclopedia
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Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
's Exclusive Economic Zone
Exclusive Economic Zone
Under the law of the sea, an exclusive economic zone is a seazone over which a state has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including production of energy from water and wind. It stretches from the seaward edge of the state's territorial sea out to 200 nautical...
.
ZERP was initiated by the Croatian Peasant Party
Croatian Peasant Party
The Croatian Peasant Party is a center and socially conservative political party in Croatia.-Austria-Hungary:The Croatian People's Peasant Party was formed on December 22, 1904 by Antun Radić along with his brother Stjepan Radić. The party contested elections for the first time in the Kingdom of...
, then a member of Croatia's governing coalition. It was then legislated by the Croatian Government of Ivica Račan
Ivica Racan
Ivica Račan was a Croatian career politician, leader of the League of Communists of Croatia and later Social Democratic Party from 1989 to 2007...
on October 3, 2003, and came into effect exactly one year later, excluding European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
member states. The government informed the United Nations Secretariat
United Nations Secretariat
The United Nations Secretariat is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and it is headed by the United Nations Secretary-General, assisted by a staff of international civil servants worldwide. It provides studies, information, and facilities needed by United Nations bodies for...
of the decision prior to the 2004 enactment of the zone. On January 1, 2008 the zone came into full effect as it began to be enforced for EU nations.
The zone has an area of 23,870 square kilometres. The exact boundaries of the zone date back to treaties between what was then SFR Yugoslavia and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
in 1968 and between Croatia and FR Yugoslavia in 2001. Prior to ZERP's declaration, Italian ships annually caught 300 million euros worth of fish from the zone - ten times the amount which Croatian ships caught. In its enactment of the zone, the Croatian Government also cited the danger of the Prestige oil spill
Prestige oil spill
The Prestige oil spill was an oil spill off the coast of Galicia caused by the sinking of an oil tanker in 2002. The spill polluted thousands of kilometers of coastline and more than one thousand beaches on the Spanish, French and Portuguese coast, as well as causing great harm to the local fishing...
being repeated on the Croatian Adriatic, which would seriously affect the country's tourism industry.
The zone has widespread support in Croatia. All major political parties support the zone, including the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party of Croatia
Social Democratic Party of Croatia , commonly referred to in Croatia as simply Social Democratic Party , is the largest centre-left political party in Croatia...
, Croatian Peasant Party
Croatian Peasant Party
The Croatian Peasant Party is a center and socially conservative political party in Croatia.-Austria-Hungary:The Croatian People's Peasant Party was formed on December 22, 1904 by Antun Radić along with his brother Stjepan Radić. The party contested elections for the first time in the Kingdom of...
, and Democratic Centre
Democratic Centre
The Democratic Centre is a Croatian political party.The Party was formed in 2000 by Mate Granić and Vesna Škare-Ožbolt after they left the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union following the party's defeat in the January 2000 election and Mate Granić's defeat in the February 2000 presidential race...
. The Croatian Democratic Union
Croatian Democratic Union
The Croatian Democratic Union is the main center-right political party in Croatia. It is the biggest and strongest individual Croatian party since independence of Croatia. The Christian democratic HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 to 2000 and, in partial coalition, from 2003...
has been a cautious supporter, wary of the EU's response.
In 2008, Luigi Giannini, leader of Italian fisherman organization Federcoopesca, has declared that 1/3 of all Italian fishing activity is coming from ZERP .
On 10 March 2008, the HDZ-led government decided not to enforce ZERP for EU members from 15 March 2008 onwards.
Enforcement
So far no ship has been caught within the zone. However, on January 3, 2008, the Croatian Navy intercepted an Italian boat which had passed through the zone and was actually in Croatian territorial waters. The fishing boat was escorted to VisVis (island)
Vis is the most outerly lying larger Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, and is part of the Central Dalmatian group of islands, with an area of 90.26 km² and a population of 3,617 . Of all the inhabited Croatian islands, it is the farthest from the coast...
by a Navy warship and the three fishermen were arrested.
On February 6, 2008, the Turkish cargo ship UND Adriyatik caught fire just outside the Zone. According to the Croatian media, it was seen as a test for the ZERP.