“The actions that we have recently encountered first of all limit legal fishing activities and create a feeling of insecurity and the crews cannot feel safe,” Minister of Agriculture Virginija Baltraitienė said in a statement.
According to an expert on international maritime law, Mykolas Romeris University Professor Saulius Katuoka, publicly-available information suggests that the issue may lay in unclear geographic delimitation of Russia’s exclusive economic zone and the fishing area. Fishing activities in the area are based on an international agreement the implementation of which is controlled by the NEAFC.
The professor said that perhaps Russia and the NEAFC have different views on the limits of Russia’s exclusive economic zone and the fishing area. “If the Commission manages to defend the coordinates and if the ship proves it was sailing within the coordinates, then Lithuania will be right,” said the professor.
The European Union is represented at the NEAFC by the European Commission. With its help Lithuania is trying to defend justified interests of the Lithuanian fishing company and its citizens.
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