November 30, 2014

No Anchoring near Concession Area - Law not justified

Maybe you remember: In Autumn 2012 Croatian government published a law that forbids anchoring 300 meters around the Concession Areas, I wrote about the details here. And maybe you remember that in 2013 Croatian sailors started a petition against this law, and soon afterwards the law was modified, by reducing the distance where anchoring is forbidden from 300 meters to 150 meters, I wrote about the details here.

Interesting until now, but the story has not yet ended: Some weeks ago the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the Faculty of Maritime Studies of the University of Rijeka published a study that figured out that this law (Article 49 (3)) is not justified.

In detail the study "Nautical Traffic Study for Split, Ploce and Dubrovnik" says that "...since Nautical Anchorages represent an economic activity, their interests (that anchoring is forbidden around them) must not be protected by a law that regulates the safety of navigation and environmental protection."

As a conclusion of this, the study proposes "...to delete paragraph 3 of Article 49 of the Regulations on maritime safety".

Will be interesting, if Croatian Government follows the suggestions of MPPI. I will keep you up to date...