ZAGREB, January 27, 2018 – Croatian police have caught on camera eight Slovenian fishing boats repeatedly crossing the Croatian border in the contested Bay of Savudrija without permission and will send them orders to pay fines, the Ministry of the Interior announced in a statement on Saturday.
The eight offenders have been identified in most of the 235 violations of the border demarcation line recorded since the International Court of Arbitration ruled on the border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia, the ruling which Croatia does not recognise as binding, according to the statement.
The Ministry of the Interior said that the Slovenian fishermen violated the Schengen Borders Code, Croatia’s State Border Control Act and Maritime Fisheries Act, EU Regulation 1224/2009 concerning the Common Fisheries Policy and Commission Implementing Regulation 404/2011.
The statement said that unless the offenders pay their fines, they may face police action if and when they attempt to cross the Slovenian-Croatian border.
The announcement by the Croatian police came after Slovenian police said they had sent the first 14 fines to Croatian fishermen from Savudrija and Umag and that they would continue to enforce the law in a similar way next week.
