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In a complex 300-page judgement, the judges ruled Slovenia should have
"a junction area" with international waters, allowing "freedom of communication" to
all ships, civilian and military, seeking access to Slovenia (AFP Photo/Jure Makovec)
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The Hague
(AFP) - International judges on Thursday awarded Slovenia key access to
international waters off the Croatian coast, sparking a furious reaction from
Zagreb which said it would refuse to implement the ruling.
In a
complex 300-page judgement, the judges ruled Slovenia should have "a
junction area" with international waters, allowing "freedom of
communication" to all ships, civilian and military, seeking access to
Slovenia.
They
determined that the "junction between the Slovenian territorial sea and
the 'High Sea' is an area in which ships and aircraft enjoy essentially the
same rights of access to and from Slovenia as they enjoy on the high
seas," presiding judge Gilbert Guillaume said, in a two-hour long
judgement.
In
Ljubljana, Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar hailed the ruling as a
"historic moment for Slovenia," saying the judgement "is
definitive and must be applied on both countries, Slovenia and Croatia".
The
Slovenian leader said he would call his Croatian counterpart during the day to
"begin dialogue on implementing the decision".
"Slovenia
will do nothing to harm relations between our countries or our citizens,"
he said.
But
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said his country will refuse to
implement the ruling, saying it was "not obliging us in any way".
Poisoned
relations
The sea
corridor will be about 2.5 nautical miles wide, and lies about 12 nautical
miles beyond the territorial limits of both Croatia and Italy.
But in the
case which was first lodged with the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2009,
the court rejected Ljubljana's claim that the whole of the southwestern Piran
bay was Slovenian territory.
Instead
they determined the maritime border "shall be a straight line joining a
point in the middle of the channel of the St Odoric Canal" heading
straight into the bay from the mouth of the Dragonja River.
The area
under dispute is a tranquil bay on the northern Adriatic Sea, where the
medieval buildings of the southwestern Slovenian town of Piran tumble down to a
sleepy port.
But the bay
is also shared by Croatia, and the dispute over where the sea borders should be
drawn has poisoned relations between the neighbours since they both declared
independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
In 2009,
the two countries signed an EU-backed deal to allow the Permanent Court of
Arbitration in The Hague to solve the long-standing dispute over the 13 square
kilometres (five square miles) of largely uninhabited land and Piran Bay.
Slovenia,
which has just 46 kilometres (29 miles) of coastline, had argued its access to
international waters was at stake because Croatia, whose coast stretches for
1,700 kilometres, wanted the border to be drawn down the middle of the disputed
bay.
'Freedom
of the seas'
The judges
stressed that the aim of the corridor was to "guarantee both the integrity
of Croatia's territorial sea and Slovenia's freedoms of communication between
its territory and the high seas."
Zagreb had
only agreed to join the proceedings after Ljubljana lifted its veto in 2009 to
Croatia's accession to the European Union. But it pulled out again in 2014
following a phone tapping scandal.
A Slovenian
judge from the tribunal and a Ljubljana official were recorded discussing tactics
for a ruling favourable to Slovenia.
Observers
have warned that if Zagreb does not comply with the ruling it could further
strain already tense relations with Slovenia, which is Croatia's key entry
point into the passport-free Schengen zone.
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