Croatia proclaimed a protected ecological-fishery zone (ZERP) outside its territorial waters which application commenced on the 01st January 2008 thus fiction moved into theory.

The belt was activated neglecting the fierce opposition of the neighbouring countries: Italy and Slovenia who feel their interests on the Adriatic Sea have been harmed. The expansion of jurisdiction of the Republic of Croatia in the Adriatic Sea has reached much debate in the EU as Italy and Slovenia protested and pushed their influence in the EU, even reconsidering their support for Croatia to join the EU, in order to pressure Croatia into a compromise.

Currently, there is also much speculation going on about Croatia’s ability to control the application of the regulations in the protected belt as some have claimed that Croatia doesn’t have enough resources to enforce such restrictions. These claims gained in strength with the recent capture of an Italian fishing vessel in Croatian territorial waters. The captured fishing vessel sailed across the whole ZERP zone before it was captured by a Croatian war vessel near the island of Vis.

Howewer, it is the belief of Croatia Maritime that the fishing boat incident does NOT prove that Croatia is unable to protect the ZERP zone but only reflects the shameful lack of political will on the Croatian side to enforce the ZERP.
ZERP activation was one of the conditions to the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) by the “peasent” party (HSS) while coalescing to form a government and a popular move to appease to the voters. However, it seems that the enforcement of the ZERP zone on paper only suited everyone.

To bring the ZERP to praxis one would simply need an “armed dinghy” (speed boat) and a good land based radar installation !