LARS-GUNNAR WIGEMARK Peljesac Bridge Case: Help Requested from Head of EU Delegation

Several experts gathered around the 'Open Sea of Bosnia and Herzegovina' group have requested that Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, Head of the European Union Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, get involved in the case of the Peljesac Bridge, which Croatia is illegally planning to build in the Bay of Mali Ston.

In a letter sent to Ambassador Wigemark's address, and shown to the Patria agency, Wigemark is reminded, among other things, that the construction of the Peljesac Bridge would close Bosnia and Herzegovina's free access to the open sea, which is contrary to Article 7 and Article 10 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Croatia is also bound.

The Croatian Government claims that it will not abandon the construction of the Peljesac Bridge, which would connect the Dubrovnik-Neretva County by land to the rest of Croatia, regardless of warnings that the bridge would block Bosnia and Herzegovina's access to the open sea and that Croatia would thereby violate international law.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic recently stated that the bridge - for which the European Commission has allocated around 357 million euros - is a strategic issue for Croatia, regardless of reactions from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The stance of Prime Minister Plenkovic has been assessed by some analysts as unfriendly, and very arrogant in relation to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatia is arranging its own country at the expense of neighboring BiH.

The letter addressed to the Head of the EU Delegation to BiH states, among other things, that the Peljesac Bridge case involves an encroachment by neighboring Croatia on the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the ambassador is also reminded that an arbitration court ruled in favor of Slovenia a few weeks ago in a dispute with Croatia, when Slovenia was granted a four-kilometer open corridor to international waters passing through the Bay of Piran, Patria reports.