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Zagreb - Foreign Ministry State Secretary Andreja Metelko Zgombić said on Tuesday that the demarcation of the exclusive economic zone protects the interests of Croatian fishermen.
"Reaching agreement on the demarcation with Italy can protect our fish stocks and fisheries in the appropriate manner in the Mediterranean, where there were no fishing quotas but area restrictions on fishing exist," the state secretary told the Sabor when presenting the draft law on ratification of the Croatia-Italy agreement on the demarcation of exclusive economic zones (EEZ).
Croatia and Italy signed this treaty on the demarcation of exclusive economic zones in mid-2022.
This agreement will complete all the efforts taken so far o the border demarcation with Italy, she said.
This demarcation line follows the line of demarcation of the continental shelf between the two countries, that is the line of separation temporarily defined by the Croatian parliament when it declared the ZERP zone ( Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone in 2003), and then the exclusive economic zone in 2021, said Metelko Zgombić.
The official says the benefits of the ratification will be the protection of the interests of local fishermen and better control of vessels inside the exclusive economic zone.
Some opposition MPs criticised the government over a lack of protection of fishermen, while MP Ružica Vukovac said that an advantage of this agreement is a possibility for excluding fleets of third countries from the European waters, and in this context she mentioned the Albanian fishing fleet.