Algeria expands its waters unilaterally and invades part of the Cabrera National Park

Spain encounters a second time in a few weeks with litigation caused by its Maghreb neighbors on account of maritime sovereignty. The Foreign Minister, Arancha González Laya, rejected on Wednesday the maritime delimitation made by Algeria in 2018 to appropriate waters that overlap with the Spanish. Although the Algerian decree that dumped the waters near Cabrera Island (south of Mallorca) was approved almost two years ago, the measure, adopted without negotiating with Spain, has gone unnoticed until now. "We do not agree and we informed him [of Algeria]," said the minister at a press conference at the Foreign Ministry. González Laya will travel to Algiers next week and discuss this issue - among others - with the authorities of the African country.

The minister wanted to differentiate this case from a very similar one that happened recently with Morocco. “Unlike Morocco, which has only expressed an interest in delimiting its waters, Algeria has already presented its vision of how to delimit them,” he explained, referring to Rabat, although he has approved a new water delimitation in his Parliament, he does not detail exactly what areas it would affect. Even so, González Laya wanted to reduce the Algerian movement's drama by explaining that it is not valid without agreeing with Spain: “What the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea says is that now the negotiation is coming, something that has not yet happened "

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The first opportunity to address this issue will occur next Wednesday, in the visit that the minister will make to Algeria and that had been delayed since the first days of her term. It is a strategic country for Spain because it supplies approximately half of the gas it consumes. That North African State has been experiencing tensions for a year, when protests brought President Abdelaziz Buteflika down after 20 years in power.

The Balearic Government had asked the Central Executive to clarify the “diplomatic conflict” initiated by Algeria because the decree expands its zone of economic exclusion in the Mediterranean and that, in practice, invades part of the waters of the National Park of Cabrera, of competence state. The Regional Government Environment Minister, Miquel Mir, suspects that one of the objectives of the modification of Algerian waters is to open the door to future hydrocarbon prospecting projects, to which the Government of the socialist Francina Armengol has shown his Total rejection in recent years.

After hearing about the changes promoted by the country of North Africa, the Minister of the Environment last week sent a letter to the fourth vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, to explain the actions carried out with Algeria to clarify the diplomatic conflict.

One of the main concerns of the Balearic Government is that new hydrocarbon prospecting projects can be developed in the area of ​​water interference caused by the expansion of the Algerian jurisdiction. "We have already expressed our disagreement in this way in a restrictive manner," Mir said. Algeria approved the decree to expand its waters in April 2018 but it has not been until now when the Autonomous Administration has asked to clarify the terms of the same and if the invasion of the waters of the National Park of Cabrera opens the door to prospecting .

One of those still active is the MedSalt-2 hydrocarbons research project, promoted by the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics of Trieste, which sought to explore the seabed in the areas between Ibiza and Mallorca and south of the Pitiusas Last November, the Ministry of Ecological Transition requested the archiving of environmental assessment procedures and some environmental entities such as Mar Blava Alliance submitted more than 43,000 citizen claims and repeatedly demanded the final file of the project.

The expansion of the Cabrera National Park in February last year, when it went from 10,000 to 90,000 hectares protected, also caused a jurisdictional conflict between the regional and central administration. Last July, the Armengol Executive resorted to the Supreme Court to demand the complete management of the park, including the external waters that were declared of state competence because the Government did not verify scientific evidence of ecological continuity between the islands of the Cabrera archipelago and the marine area The Autonomous Community Advocacy argued that before the extension it was already in charge of the complete management of the park. The matter continues in court.

In the case of Morocco, the alert about the attempt to adjudicate waters that overlap with the Spanish - on that occasion, in the Canary area - transcended on the eve of the minister's trip to Rabat, which constituted her first bilateral visit after take possession. Foreign considers the Algerian issue, which comes from afar although it has been known now because it has been raised by the Balearic Parliament, a step more unfriendly than that of Morocco. The reason is that the Algerian decree did specify exactly the limits of its waters of economic exploitation, which coincide with those of that Balearic island.

When there is disagreement between two States over their exclusive maritime spaces, it can be appealed to the UN, specifically before the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. Without the approval of this organization, the delimitation is not valid internationally, although any country can decide to act unilaterally.