The
Netherlands and Germany have long disagreed about where exactly their shared
nautical border lies in the North Sea. A meeting of the two nations' foreign
ministers finally put an end to the dispute.
A border
dispute is not an issue usually associated within the cut-and-dry framework of
the European Union. Yet that's just what Germany and its neighbor, the
Netherlands, finally laid to rest on Friday after centuries of discord over the
between German East Frisia and Dutch West Frisia, according to German news
agency dpa.
German
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (above left) and his Dutch
counterpart, Bert Koenders (right), met at the border between the German town
of Emden and Delfzijl in the Netherlands, where the Ems River empties into the
disputed Dollart Bay. The ministers signed an agreement that the border will
remain ambiguous and both nations will share responsibility for the area.
"If
only every conflict could be solved so easily," said Steinmeier, after he
and Koenders signed the document, symbolically astride the deck of a ship,
floating between both nations.
The
agreement has important economic implications, as it has long been the site of
contention between German and Dutch fisherman, as well as the 450 million euro-
($570 million) Borkum Riffgat offshore wind farm, run by the German EWE energy
company to the ire of Dutch protesters.
On the
Dutch side, in Delfzijl, a coal power plant has been built which the German
East Frisians say will pollute the river and the bay and hurt tourism -
something they depend on. The government of Lower Saxony, the state to which
East Frisia belongs, called it an "unfriendly act" on the part of the
Dutch.
The
document signed by Steinmeier and Koenders put these issues to rest, at least
diplomatically, and the German wind farm no long stands on shaky ground in
terms of international law. The responsibilities of both nations are now
clearly defined.
Steinmeier
called the agreement "a good result for the economy, for new wind farms
and maritime interests."
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