Croatia Fines Slovene Fishermen

By , 01 Feb 2018, 13:27 PM News
Croatia Fines Slovene Fishermen Montage: JL Flanner

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Slovenian police started fining Croatians on January 26. 

Fisherman Silvano Radin told the STA on Thursday that as a fisherman had received six fines today, each totalling almost EUR 2,000, the STA reports February 1, 2018.

His company was fined another EUR 1,330 and he as the company boss another EUR 660, or almost 14,000 euro in total.

Radin said that he had been fined for having violated Croatia's border control and Schengen border legislation.

In the notice coming with one of the fines, he was accused of commercial fishing "in Croatia's territorial sea".

The notice also listed the coordinates of his boat during fishing and of the Croatian police who identified him, he explained.

It also said that he had been notified of the offence and left the Croatian territorial waters without stopping.

"Since the arbitration ruling, I have never crossed the arbitration border. Before, I would fish further south," said Radin.

He will therefore not pay the fines, but turn to a law firm in Croatia's Pula, as instructed by the Agriculture Ministry.

Before starting to implement the 2017 arbitration decision, Slovenia adopted changes to the fisheries act pledging to provide legal aid to Slovenian fishermen in cases such as this.

Apart from Radin, several other Slovenian fishermen have received fines. The Croatian police said on Monday that eleven fines had been sent out.

The latest development comes after Slovenian police sent the first fines to Croatian fishermen on 26 January for illegally crossing the sea border.

Slovenia started fining the Croatian fishermen after it began implementing the border arbitration decision on 30 December, six months after the decision was delivered.

As a countermeasure, Croatia announced to fine Slovenian fishermen who would be fishing in what it considers its waters.

The Croatian government also instructed their fishermen not to pay the fines, letting them know Croatia would pay them instead.

However, an expert has warned that this would mean recognising the arbitration decision, which Croatia continues to reject.

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