The Italian Law Authorizing the Creation of an Exclusive Economic Zone

Abstract

Abstract With Law No. 91/2021 Italy authorized the establishment of an exclusive economic zone, an epoch-making change in Italian foreign policy. For decades, the governments of the Peninsula, conditioned by the interests of national fishermen and by the advice of the Navy, have pushed for a limitation of the extension of jurisdiction in the Mediterranean. There is no doubt that in semi-enclosed seas the EEZ regime is more difficult to apply, but by now almost all the coastal States of this sea have declared an EEZ or are preparing to do so. The regime will coincide with the provisions of UNCLOS on the subject. The most delicate problem is undoubtedly that of delimitation. In the past, Italy has negotiated disadvantageous delimitation lines of the continental shelf, which are now being proposed, by the States with which such agreements have been concluded, as “all purposes” delimitation lines. The problem arises for the moment essentially with Tunisia, since in the other cases the agreements are with EU countries, and with Algeria, with which there are no agreements in force but which has declared an EEZ that overlaps with areas potentially subject to Italian (and other countries’) jurisdiction.