People’s Action of Proclaiming Exclusive Economic Zone of the Croatian State

As one of its projects Croatian National Ethical Tribunal, all of which have been significant for Croatian people and nation, is taking action for “National Reveille of Croatian Sovereignty” and announces: Actio Popularis – People’s Action of Proclaiming Exclusive Economic Zone of the Croatian State (EEZ), under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which confers national sovereignty on as much of the Adriatic Sea as it currently has. I.e. On Saturday 21 September 2019 boats will head out into the Adriatic Sea from city of Zadar to the spots that represent the outer borders of Croatia’s EEZ as per the above UN Convention. This is an affirmative action by citizens asserting Croatia’s rights over the Adriatic Sea and it is a particularly significant action given the prolonged claims and counter claims between governments of Slovenia and Croatia as well as the EU court institutions dealing with bored disputes during past couple of decades.

Exclusive Economic Zone is a new institute of Law of the Sea and Public International Law, which reconciled, throughout history, irreconcilable, opposing views: the egoism of sovereign states and the idealism of freedom of the open seas. From the border line of the territorial sea, coastal states receive another 200 m, that is, median lines in small seas, large surfaces of open seas  are placed  under the jurisdiction of the sovereignty of states, with the proviso that that it leaves free movement of sea vessels in accordance with the principle that “the sea is the heritage of mankind”.

The Croatian state has been abandoning this international right, that is, its obligations to the well-being of its people – persistently, without foundation and unjustifiably. As the books were written about the benefits that the EEZ brings, academic Vladimir Ibler, a member of the world team that wrote the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, who participated in the writing of the Law for 20 years,  has left us the following in  writing: “Given that there is no valid reason, nor a legally logical explanation for non-proclamation, the state government has political and legal responsibility … there is nothing more important for Croatia than a new EEZ Institute, which raises issues of paramount importance to Croatian politics … the EEZ must be proclaimed because otherwise it is ‘non-existent’. .. this must be accepted unconditionally … any opposition to the necessity of proclamation would be a complete miss and contrary to the uniform practice of states which have proclaimed it … the profession claims that the law and interest of Croatia in this matter are absolute and they see no reason against the proclamation. We relinquish very valuable new rights for the exploration and use of the sea, safeguarding the security and defence values ​​for the state … deciding not to declare is a responsible act … whether or not a coastal state decides to declare, means that for legislative and executive non-declaration the authorities must have justifiable reasons. And if they do not have justifiable reasons for not declaring its EEZ, then they are responsible for all consequences: political, certainly, and perhaps legal! … ”

EEZ Institute does not lapse, it is there waiting for the proclamation, because without proclamation it does not exist. The long-standing, persistent “crime of omission” must be urgently corrected. Any procrastination accumulates to irreparable losses, but also increases the risk that further relinquishment of the sea over which we can have sovereignty will be left to the anarchy of the open seas, and impoverish and pollute it so much that we have nothing to explore, exploit and preserve.

One can no longer stand the fact that the failure to declare EEZ also means not participating in the eventual possibility of enlarging one’s own state maritime area.

That is why the Croatian people, who are the sole holder of the sovereignty of the Croatian state since the moment of its entry onto the list of UN states of the world (22 May 1992), will sail on ships from the waterfront in Zadar on Saturday, September 21, 2019 at 10 am to the line of our Croatian EEZ, and DECLARE.

We will send the decision to the UN, EU, Croatian institutions and the general public. Ina Vukic