Filenews 17 September 2021
The Republic of Cyprus is proceeding with the integrated and effective protection and management of the Akrotiri Limassol sea area, from Cape Cat to Cape Pair, an area that hosts breeding habitats of sea turtles, caretta caretta and chelonia mydas, the Tursiops truncatus and one of the last remaining breeding shelters of the endangered Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus in Cyprus. This is an area that belongs administratively to the British Bases and now the Republic of Cyprus is given the opportunity to declare it a marine protected area, as well as to take measures for the conservation and management of fish stocks in the same area.
The above arise after the decision of the Council of Ministers to adopt a proposal submitted by the Minister of Agriculture which gives the authority to the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research (ICG) to take national measures for the conservation and management of fishery resources within the sea area of the British Bases.
Specifically, the THWC, in a letter to the Legal Service of the Republic and in consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requested a legal opinion on the status of the sea areas adjacent to the British Bases, as well as on the possibility for the Republic of Cyprus to declare a protected area within the sea area adjacent to the Bases, taking into account the special status that governs the Bases.
The Legal Service, after analyzing the legal status of the Protocol to the Treaty of Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union and Regulation 1380/2013 concerning the Common Fisheries Policy, has given its opinion that the competent Authority of the Republic may take national measures for the conservation and management of fishery resources within the sea area of the Bases. To this end, it proposed the amendment of the Fisheries Law, so as to provide for the relevant powers of the competent Authority of the Republic of Cyprus within the Bases pursuant to the Protocol.
The ICRC, as the competent Authority, has prepared an amending bill, the purpose of which is to implement the Agreement on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and the Protocol thereto on the Sovereign Base Areas of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Cyprus and in particular Article 6 of the Protocol, which states that 'the provisions of EU law on ... fisheries included in Title III of Part Three of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and the acts adopted on the basis of those provisions, apply to and within the Sovereign Base Areas", as well as that 'the Republic of Cyprus shall be responsible for the application and enforcement of the provisions of Union law referred to therein.
What does the UK Withdrawal Agreement say?
Article 6 Agriculture, Fisheries and Veterinary and Phytosanitary Rules of the Protocol on the areas of the UK Sovereign Bases of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Cyprus states:
'The provisions of Union law on agriculture and fisheries contained in Title III of Part Three of the TFEU and the acts adopted on the basis of those provisions, as well as the veterinary and phytosanitary rules adopted in particular on the basis of Article 168(4)(b) TFEU, shall apply to and within the Sovereign Base Areas. The Republic of Cyprus is responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the provisions of Union law referred to in the first paragraph in the Sovereign Base Areas."
Measures for the conservation and management of fishery resources
The Legal Service in its opinion to the Ministry of Agriculture refers both to the Treaty of Establishment of the Republic of Cyprus of 1960 which does not allow the Republic of Cyprus to claim part of the sea in the areas of the British Bases, and to the Protocol to the Treaty of Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union which allows the Republic of Cyprus to declare a protected area within the sea area adjacent to the British Base. The Ministry requested a legal opinion on the status of the sea areas adjacent to the British Bases, as well as the possibility for the Republic of Cyprus to make the sea area of Akrotiri, Limassol, a Marine Protected Area.
Article 3 of Annex A to the Treaty establishing the Republic of Cyprus states that the Republic of Cyprus may not claim, as part of its territorial sea, the waters within the imaginary lines defined in that article. The imaginary lines start from the extreme boundaries of the land territory of the two Bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
However, the Protocol on the British Bases to the Withdrawal Agreement of the United Kingdom from the European Union provides, inter alia, in Article 6 that the provisions of EU law on fisheries contained in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU and legal acts adopted on the basis thereof shall apply within the Uk Bases. According to the same article, the Republic of Cyprus is responsible for the implementation and implementation of the provisions of EU law relating to the Common Fisheries Policy, in relation to which it is also accountable to the EU.
It is concluded that according to the Protocol to the Treaty of Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU and application of Regulation 1380/2013, the Department of Fisheries may take measures for the conservation and management of fishery resources within the sea area up to three nautical miles adjacent to the coast of the British Bases.
