The legal provisions about the exploration of hydrocarbons in an exclusive economic zone and the aegean dispute among Greece and Turkey.

The legal provisions about the exploration of hydrocarbons
in an exclusive economic zone and the Aegean dispute among
Greece and Turkey.

Team members:

Dimitriadis Savvas
Gazis Nikolaos
Koukou Ekaterini
Teterina Xenia

The legal provisions about the exploration of hydrocarbons in an exclusive
economic zone and the Aegean dispute among Greece and Turkey.

Exclusive economic zone.
An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is a sea-zone prescribed by the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), over which a
coastal state has sovereign rights to explore and exploit, conserve and
manage its natural resources. It stretches from the seaward edge of the
state's territorial sea out to 200 nautical miles (nm). When two (or more)
state’s coastal baselines are less than 400 nm apart, overlap of EEZs occurs
and it is up to the states to delineate the actual maritime boundary.

Territorial waters.
Territorial waters or territorial sea, as defined by the UNCLOS of 1982
(Art 3), is a belt of coastal waters extending at most 12 nm from the
baseline of a coastal state. The territorial sea is regarded as the sovereign
territory of the state.


Continental shelf.
The boundary of a continent is not its coastline, but the edge of the
continental shelf that lies under the ocean. Even though it is underwater,
continental shelf is part of the continent and contains the sea-bed and
subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond the territorial sea.
Coastal nations has control of all resources on or under it, living or not, but
no control over any living organisms above the shelf that are beyond its
exclusive economic zone.

 There is possibility continental shelf existing without EEZ but not the
opposite.


United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is the
international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations
Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III-1982). The Law of the Sea
Convention defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of
the world's oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment,
and the management of marine natural resources. UNCLOS came into
force in 1994. At October 2012, 163 countries and the European Union
have joined in the Convention. Today UNCLOS is the main corpus of
international legislation for the sea.


A brief summary of the articles of the UNCLOS concerning exploration and
exploitation activities in EEZs.
In the exclusive economic zones and on the continental shelf, coastal states may
regulate scientific research. In particular, they can authorize or prohibit the access
to the area to another state if the project has direct consequences on the
exploitation of natural resources, or involves drilling into the continental shelf or
the construction and use of artificial structures.
Foreign states that want to conduct the research must describe accurately the
work they want to carry out and the means and methods they intend to use, the
geographical area in which the project will be conducted. They must also invite the
coastal state to participate in the marine scientific research project and on board
research vessels.
All the reports and conclusions of the research must be sent to the coastal state if
the latter asks for them, and an access to resulting data must be granted to it. If the
foreign state does not comply with those provisions, the coastal state can order it to
suspend its activities.


A brief summary of the articles of the Directive 94/22/EC of the European
Parliament and of the Council on the conditions for granting and using
authorizations for the prospection, exploration and production of hydrocarbons.
The member states have sovereign rights over hydrocarbon resources within their
territories. It is up to each member state to determine the geographical areas in
which the rights to prospect, explore for and produce hydrocarbons may be
exercised, and to authorize entities to exercise those rights. The procedures for
granting authorizations must be introduced in a transparent manner so that they will
be open to all interested entities. All the information relating to the authorization is
published in the Official Journal of the European Union at least 90 days before the
deadline for the submission of applications.
The limits of the geographical areas covered by an authorization and the duration
of that authorization must be determined in proportion to what is justified in terms
of the best possible exercise of the activities from an economic and technical point
of view. The aim is to prevent a single entity from having exclusive rights for an
area whose prospection, exploration and production can be carried out more
effectively by several entities.


Law no. 2289/95 Prospecting, Exploration and Exploitation of Hydrocarbons
and other Provisions.

In 1995, the law 2289 of Greek legislation, which adopted EC Directive
94/22/EC and the provisions of UNCLOS, came into effect and was reformed
by the law 4001/2011. In fact law 4001/2011 embeds articles of UNCLOS
and of the Directive 94/22 into Greek legislation.

Aegean dispute.
The Aegean dispute is a set of interrelated controversial issues between Greece
and Turkey over sovereignty and related rights in the area of the Aegean Sea. The
dispute between Greece and Turkey is to what degree the Greek islands should be
taken into account for determining the Greek and Turkish economic zones. Turkey
argues that the notion of "continental shelf", by its very definition, implies that
distances should be measured from the continental mainland, claiming that the sea-
bed of the Aegean geographically forms a natural prolongation of the Anatolian
land mass.
This set of conflicts has had a large effect on Greek-Turkish relations since the
1970s. It has twice led to crises coming close to the outbreak of military hostilities,
in 1987 and in early 1996. Tensions over the 12 mile question ran highest between
the two countries in the early 1990s, when the Law of the Sea was about to come
into force. On 9 June 1995, the Turkish parliament officially declared that
unilateral action by Greece would constitute a casus belli, i.e. reason to go to war.
This declaration has been condemned by Greece as a violation of the Charter of the
United Nations, which forbids "the threat or use of force against the territorial
integrity or political independence of any state".


In the Aegean the territorial waters claimed by both sides are still at 6 miles. The
possibility of an extension to 12 miles has fuelled Turkish concerns over a possible
disproportionate increase in Greek-controlled space. Turkey has refused to become
a member of the convention and does not consider itself bound by it. Turkey
considers the convention as a treaty that can only be binding to the signing parties
but not to others.


International Court of Justice
In its Judgment, the Court recalls that on 10 August 1976 Greece instituted
proceedings against Turkey in respect of a dispute concerning the delimitation of
the continental shelf appertaining to each of the two States in the Aegean Sea and
their rights there over. In a letter of 26 August 1976 Turkey expressed the view that
the Court had no jurisdiction to entertain the Application.
On 19 December 1978, in its judgment on the question of its jurisdiction in the
case concerning the Aegean Sea Continental Shelf (Greece - Turkey), the Court
found that it is without jurisdiction to entertain the Application filed by the
Government of Greece.


Cyprus.
There is possibility continental shelf existing without EEZ but not the opposite.
At February 2003 Cyprus signed a convention which declared the principle of
EEZ with Egypt. In these conventions there was no mention about the continental
shelf , since the juries prudence of the definition of the continental shelf Libya-
Malta (1985) stated that continental shelf and EEZ are totally different and separate
the rights in the seabed and the subsoil . This was the first convention of EEZ in
Eastern Mediterranean. After four years Cyprus signed the same convention with
Lebanon (December 2010).
In the agreement between Cyprus and Egypt both countries recognize that the
most effective way for the exploitation of their natural resources is through unified
operation agreements adjoining areas.

Conclusion.
It is clear that the established legislation that is in force today for issues regarding the
determination of EEZs, thus exploration and exploitation of natural resources in it, are
not always sufficient when states EEZs happens to overlap. In these cases disputes may
occur among the costal nations and the proper Courts are unable to resolve the conflicts.
Such an example is the Aegean dispute among Greece and Turkey where the
International Court of Justice found that it is without jurisdiction to entertain the
Application filed by the Government of Greece. Greece on its position should follow
the geopolitical formula that Cyprus applied in order to delaminate its EEZ.
Possibly problems will arise if a state abuses the official rights of the coastal state.
The mainly reasons for non-definition of EEZ in the Mediterranean sea are firstly
because it would give as a result the disappearance of ‘open sea’, additionally disputes
would come over from many cases of delineating. Many countries were in accordance
in order not to adopt the implementation of EEZ. Egypt and Morocco are the exceptions
in this general declaration of principles.
It is obvious that the creation of an EEZ by Cyprus has forced the government in
Athens to reconsider its position on the concept of the EEZ, and it has already started
discussions with its other neighbours, Albania, Egypt, Italy, and Libya. Nevertheless,
these discussions have not produced any positive results for Greece so far.

The legal provisions about the exploration of hydrocarbons in an exclusive economic zone and the aegean dispute among Greece and Turkey.

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