TALLINN (Interfax) - A number of Estonian politicians, including former Prime Minister Juhan Parts, have come up with a proposal that Estonia's territorial waters in the Gulf of Finland be expanded in order to obstruct construction of the North European Gas Pipeline.
"In line with international maritime law (the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea), Estonia's maritime borderline could have passed along the central line between Estonia's and Finland's coasts," the politicians said in a statement published in the Wednesday issue of
Eesti Paevaleht.
Estonia and Finland exchanged notes in 1993 to seal an agreement that the two countries would voluntarily remove the borders of their territorial waters three miles away from the central line to set up an economic zone in the form of a six-mile wide corridor, the authors of
the statement said.
"In fact, this corridor, or economic zone, has the status of open sea as regards such issues as navigation, the installation of sea cables and pipelines, or air traffic. Such activities do not require special permission," the document says.
"There were no problems until 2005. But an agreement on the German-Russian gas route, which was made public in ........
...... 2005, raises the issue of returning Estonia's maritime border to its logical and legitimate place, that is, along the central line," the statement reads. "There is only one limitation here: under the agreement with Finland, Estonia must inform Finland about this twelve months in advance," it says.
If Estonia expands its territorial waters, a pipeline can be installed along the seafloor only with Estonia's permission and on its terms, it says.
"Our view on this issue is motivated by the German-Russian project on laying a gas pipeline along the Baltic seafloor, primarily the mysterious circumstances in which this project was planned," the document reads.
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