The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs today presented the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia with a note refuting Slovenia’s claims over the conduct by Croatian maritime border patrol and control services and decisions by the competent Croatian local self-government bodies.
The note states that Croatia’s services and bodies acted in accordance with the Croatian laws and solely on Croatia’s territory and that Slovenia’s claims are without legal or factual merit as the maritime area of the Savudrija Bay, whose coast is divided between Croatia and Slovenia, has never been entirely and solely under Slovenia’s jurisdiction nor has a maritime border been delineated in the area so at the moment, in accordance with the international law, the central line serves as the lateral divider between the Croatian and Slovenian territorial sea.
The note underlines that the Croatian marine police, in performing its regular task of patrolling Croatia’s territorial sea and controlling the lateral border in the Savudrija Bay, has acted sensibly so as to avoid any serious incidents, of which none have been recorded so far, despite the considerable number of violations by Slovenian fishing and police boats in 2015. The note lists all of the violations recorded in 2015, from which it is obvious that the number of violations again rose in the last month, given that of the 200 violations that occurred in 2015, as many as 50 or so of them happened in December. It has also been noted that Slovenia’s fishing boats in the Savudrija Bay are almost without exception being accompanied by Slovenia’s police boats.
The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs has therefore lodged a strong protest with the Slovenian authorities, as they are allowing illegal crossing of the maritime border, entry and fishing by Slovenia’s fishing boats and illegal sailing by Slovenia’s police boats in the area under Croatia’s sovereignty.
The Slovenian side is called on to undertake appropriate measures so as to respect the demarcation line in the Savudrija Bay and outside of it, which is concurrent with the situation as it was on 25 June 1991, until the two countries reach a new agreement on how to resolve the border dispute or an immediate agreement is reached on the state border delineation.