Bosnian MPs Prepare Letter to EU: BiH's Consent for Pelješac Bridge Construction Falsified

A group of Bosnian-Herzegovinian parliamentarians will send a letter to representatives of the international community, demanding a halt to any activities related to the announced construction of the Pelješac Bridge in the Bay of Mali Ston, as it would, the letter states, block Bosnia and Herzegovina's access to the open sea guaranteed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, reports Patria News Agency.

"We ask you to help us resolve the problem and dispute that Bosnia and Herzegovina has with the Republic of Croatia and for the European Commission to suspend funding for the illegal Pelješac Bridge that the Republic of Croatia wishes to build in violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and by attacking the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina, all with the aim of permanently separating/cutting off Bosnia and Herzegovina from international waters (the open sea), which constitutes a violation of the international legal order as it would prevent Bosnia and Herzegovina from achieving unlimited 'free communication and navigation' for all types of vessels, overflight of aircraft, and laying of energy submarine cables, and would prevent Bosnia and Herzegovina's participation in energy supply and the implementation of the EU's energy policy, all of which would lead to Bosnia and Herzegovina transforming from a maritime state into a landlocked country," the letter states, among other things. It will be sent to the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, as well as other European officials, including the High Representative in BiH Valentin Inzko.

"The Republic of Croatia is pursuing an unfair policy towards Bosnia and Herzegovina: on one hand, it is behaving aggressively by violating the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and illegally cutting off our country from international waters and forcibly imposing the construction of the so-called Pelješac Bridge, thereby physically blocking our country's only narrow maritime connection to international waters and to other countries of the world, and thus endangering the peace, sovereignty, and stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a maritime state. On the other hand, the Republic of Croatia is misleading the international public by claiming it is connecting its Croatian coasts via its internal Croatian waters and thus implementing European cohesion policy and connecting the European area for entry into the EU Schengen zone. For the aforementioned reasons, we believe that such aggressive behavior by the Republic of Croatia represents a gross violation of the geopolitical order in the Adriatic Sea and in the southeastern European continent," the letter, which is in the possession of Patria News Agency, states.

The parliamentarians explain in the letter that the sea waters under the planned bridge are not and cannot be Croatian or internal waters, but represent international waters – an international connecting corridor extending from BiH's territorial waters to the open sea.

"This international corridor serves for 'free international communication and navigation,' and international maritime law does not permit the construction of artificial islands or any constructions/structures in such an international corridor. Therefore, the so-called Pelješac Bridge would be an illegal structure whose financing and construction should be stopped immediately."

The letter also states that Croatia is encouraging the illegal construction of the bridge at a time when maritime borders between the two countries are neither valid nor properly established, and the Border Agreement between the two countries has not been confirmed/ratified by the Parliaments of the two countries. The letter refutes Croatia's claims that it has the consent of the BiH side for the construction of the bridge. The truth is, the parliamentarians explain, that neither the BiH Parliament, nor the Council of Ministers, nor the Presidency of BiH have ever given such consent to Croatia.

"Given the recent statement by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, Mr. Andrej Plenković, that 'everything Croatia is doing regarding the construction of the Pelješac Bridge is in accordance with international law and in the spirit of good neighborly relations,' we, the deputies in the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, believe that the Government of the Republic of Croatia is violating international law and the law of the sea, but also that it is permanently misleading and deceiving the entire international public, especially the institutions of the UN, the European Union, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnian MPs also recall the arbitration ruling in the dispute between Slovenia and Croatia from June of this year, which granted Slovenia a connecting corridor to international waters with a width of 2.5 nautical miles and a length of 12 nautical miles, with the application of the 'free communication and navigation' regime identical to that in international waters, without the possibility for Croatia to abolish this corridor and apply methods of control and punishment.

The letter also states that "such violence has not occurred anywhere in the world, as no country has ever attempted to build any obstacle or bridge around the entire coast of another country, with the absurdity being greater that the Croatian side claims to have the consent of the state of BiH for the construction of the bridge. However, the truth is that neither the Presidency nor the Council of Ministers have ever issued such consent.

"We must specifically note that it is known to us from the media that the European Commission, for approving 357,000,000 euros in financial funds to Croatia for the construction of the so-called Pelješac Bridge, also required the consent of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the construction of the bridge. Given that neither the Council of Ministers nor the Presidency of BiH has ever issued such consent, the public in BiH rightfully asks and suspects that the requested consent was falsified or falsely signed by employees of the ministries of the Republic of Croatia and BiH who are members of HDZ from Croatia and HDZ from BiH, which indicates the possible commission of criminal offenses of corruption and misrepresentation, falsification of state documents, and conflict of interest. Therefore, we demand that the competent BiH institutions, as well as the institutions of the European Commission, act within their jurisdictions, investigate these allegations, and punish any perpetrators," state, among other things, the BiH parliamentarians in the letter that will soon arrive at the address of EU officials.