The Slovene government adopted the decree on Thursday, proclaiming a Slovene fishing area at sea which includes the entire Piran Bay in the northern Adriatic.
The decree divides the Slovene fishing area into three zones. Zone A covers the entire Piran Bay, which the decree says is part of Slovenia's internal waters. Zone B covers Slovenia's territorial waters, which extends from the T5 point in the north, agreed by the former Yugoslavia and Italy in a sea border deal, to Cape Savudrija in the south. The points are mentioned also in a border deal initialled in 2001 by the former Croatian and Slovene prime ministers, giving Slovenia access to the high seas.
Zone C covers the Slovene protected ecological zone and the high seas in accordance with a law passed by the Slovene parliament last autumn.
The Croatian Foreign Affairs and European Integration Ministry said the decision was unacceptable and could be seen as an attempt to encroach on Croatia's territory.
Slovenia's decree on the fishing area is in direct contravention of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and it is completely unacceptable for Slovenia to try to unilaterally claim the entire Savudrija Bay, whose coast belongs to both countries, as well as to state that its territorial waters allegedly start from Croatian land (Cape Savudrija), the Ministry said in the note.
The decree is in direct contravention of the Joint Declaration on the Avoidance of Incidents adopted at a joint session of the two governments at Brijuni. Finally, the decree is contrary to international law and basic principles of international relations, including those on which the European Union was founded, the Ministry said.
It went on to say that the latest decision of the Slovene government proved that Croatia's proposal that the sea border issue be settled by an international judicial body was politically justified and legally founded.
Concluding the note, the Ministry said that it had informed the European Commission of the latest developments.