Maritime property - the largest neglected economic potential

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Zagreb, 11th of November 2013 - A round table discussion on the subject of maritime property was held in Zagreb, organised by CPP's Political Academy, on which a warning was given that the question of maritime property must be properly addresed as soon as possible because it has one of the largest economic potentials in Croatia.

 "There is always a tendency to use the sea, and in order to be able to do that, a prerequisite is the determination of the line of maritime property which today isn't adequately determined nor solved. We have a line which is declarative and isn't written on maps, so the maritime property gets determined anew for each request. The Ministry of construction and spatial planning has recommended that a line of six meters for our entire coastline gets determined and charted and to view the points on which this distance should be larger, in order for us to have clear rules of behaviour. We are talking about a large, empty space in which Croatia can see its economic potential", highlighted the Minister of construction and spatial planning and member of CPP's Presidency Anka Mrak Taritaš.

"Croatia has a lot of maritime property, we are talking about a little more than 6800 kilometers of length, which is seven percent of the Mediterranean coastline. This is an enormous resource, the largest that Croatia has, completely neglected, regardless of the proclaimed maritime orientation, completely devastated. It is up to us now to create a legal framework which should enable responsible management of the maritime property, the realisation of investments and the conservation of maritime property", highlighted CPP's parliamentary representative Petar Baranović.

"The real value of the maritime property is immeasurable, in the context of tourism it is our most valuable potential. It is important to create prerequisites of legal security with the new law", said Baranović.

CPP's representative Goran Beus Richembergh highlighted on the other hand that the Law which regulates the question of maritime property is one of the five most important laws which determine the conditions in which tourism develops. The question of managing the maritime property induces many expert, but also concrete interest disputes, said Beus Richembergh, reminding on a few questions which are points of controversy - is maritime property public or common property, how to solve ownership-legal relations in that belt and can it be owned at all, is an entire line of demarcation of maritime property needed and where to begin.

"This is a job for a responsible Government, and this Government has given a point of view which goes in the direction of solving this problem and I hope that by June 2014 a Draft of the law on maritime property will find its way on the parliament's benches", highlighted Beus Richembergh warning that we must have a set of rules which will be usable, because at the moment we have chaos, a non-transparent state and a cradle for the development of corruption.

Damir Juričić, director of the Agency for public-private partnership, speaking about the appliance of the PPP model on maritime property highlighted prerequisites for the application of the PPP model, and he also said that it isn't possible to apply the PPP model on public buildings constructed on maritime property.

"The PPP model isn't possible to be applied on public buildings of maritime property because, by the Law on PPP it is possible to apply only a concession for public works and services, and the concession for economic use of a general or common property isn't allowed (there isn't a public service). What has the Agency for public-private partnership done in this regard? The APPP has, on the 8th of May 2013 sent a letter to the Ministry of construction and spatial planning with the subject of recommendation of the Agency for Public-private partnership for the arrangement of the question of concessions  in the new Law of maritime property and sea ports", highlighted Juričić.

The round table discussion was held as part of the Academy's 2nd Department for additional education in general politics and it was opened by Boris Blažeković, the Academy's director and CPP's parliamentary representative, and the moderator of the entire event was Goran Vojković, president of CPP's Interest committee for legislature, justice and administration.