The European Union and preservation of fishery resources in the Adriatic

The Common Fisheries Policy is the European Union’s means for rational fishing on a sustainable basis. In a devastated Mediterranean Sea, those measures are only partially implemented. The Republic of Croatia has declared its protected ecological fishing zone – with the basic aim of preserving fishery resources in the Adriatic. The European Union has obstructed it even though it is a much more effective means of protection than the Common Fisheries Policy will be. Rational and sustainable fishing is neglected. The Common Fisheries Policy was formulated under the influence of all of the European Union member states, within which relations are asymmetrical and it will be so even after Croatia becomes a member of this international organisation. In the case of the Croatian part of the Adriatic, instead of concern for the preservation of fishery resources, the socio-economic interests of the European Union states have taken precedence. These states fish in a foreign protected ecological fishing zone. (Croatian ZERP). Those above mentioned interests want to maintain the status quo and to find excuses ( like the interpretation of the minutes from the meeting of the state secretaries of Croatia, Slovenia and Italy on June 4th 2004 in Brussels) in order to disregard international law which guarantees the right to an exclusive economic zone. In the example of the Croatian ZERP, the power in international relations to oust international law was manifested. A legally regulated European Union, which in all its legal acts upon which it is founded, should have respected the sovereign right to declare ZERP. This right belongs to non-member states and is based on international agreement (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea) which equally binds the EU , its member states and Croatia