Stefanos Nikolaidis

A holistic spatial frame for the Successful Blue Development and circular economy to all the sea ​​zones of our country, is the Maritime spatial planning presented today on the initiative of Ministry of Environment and Energy in collaboration with the State Department.

Talking to skai.grProfessor of International Law and ND MP Angel Syrigos explains that what makes the BSC particularly important is that cfirst Greek positions are imprinted for 480,000 kilometers of sea zonesabout 4 times the size of Greece. This is achieved not only by attributing full influence in all the continental and island coasts of the countrybut also in Castellorizel and at Round.

What does this mean in practice?

The east borders her Greek continental shelf They rest on the Western boundaries of Cypriot EEZ. So, in substance we now have a delimitation with the Cypruseven without an official bilateral agreement.

Why is the blue homeland negate

The turquoise is a one bilateral agreement (with problematic legitimacy, as signed by the Libyan transitional government), which Turkey has testified to UN. Since there has been no official international demarcation between Greece and Cyprus – that is, with an agreement deposited with the UN – there is no legal act to negate the Turkolibyy Memorandum formally. In addition, the Turkolibycio is based on unilateral Turkish claimscompletely ignoring the influence of Rhodeshis Castellorizou and her Round.

But now Maritime Spatial Planning (HSS):

  • It reflects the complete influence of all the Greek islands, including those that Turkey ignores in its memorandum.
  • It shows the contact of the Greek continental shelf with the Cyprus EEZ, filling the gap that the Turkolibyko tries to “understand” with artificial demarcation.
  • It is adopted by the European Union (as the HSF is an obligation under European directive), thus gaining political weight and European dimension.

In other words: Greece and Cyprus, without shouting it, have drawn the maritime limit between them on the European mapand that is what the Anchor – so her narrative about ‘Blue Homeland’ and turquoise are shaken in practice.

Thus, the narrative about ‘intermediate »marine area between Turkey and Libya collapses with a official European map which adopts Greek positions. The Memorandum may not be legally annulled, but it is politically weakened and diplomatically.

At the same time, it becomes clear that the issue of Greek -Turkish maritime is transferred and to European levelreinforcing the argument that this is an issue that concerns Not only Greece, but also the EU as a whole.