For many years, certain articles have appeared in the press saying that the Canary Islands, not being an independent State, have no right to an exclusive economic zone or a continental shelf. This makes no sense. Our archipelago has territorial waters (12 miles) since Law 10/1977, of January 4, which was when Spain acquired that maritime space, and has an exclusive economic zone (200 miles) since Law 15/1978, of February 20. A different question is from where these maritime spaces are measured.
Spain provided the archipelago with a mixed system, the line of the lowest low water and straight baselines, these being established by Royal Decree 2510/1977, of August 5. Precisely Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Graciosa and the adjacent islets are united by straight baselines, following the principle of the coastal archipelago that comes from the old judgment of the International Court of Justice of 1951 in the "Anglo-Norwegian fisheries case". This is perfectly compatible with general international law and with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, made in Montego Bay, Jamaica, an international treaty that has been ratified by Portugal, Spain and Morocco.
Another point is how to delimit or draw the "borders" of these marine spaces that obviously, in the case of the three states mentioned, overlap in what refers to the exclusive economic zone in the Canary area. The basic rule of international law is to negotiate in good faith in order to reach an equitable result, which is included in article 74 of the aforementioned Convention made in Jamaica, precisely an island State. Regarding the delimitation between Spain and Portugal in what refers to the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Savage Islands, the two states have been in talks since 1978 without reaching an agreement.
Spain has protested the Portuguese pretension of granting the Savage Islands an exclusive economic zone. In relation to Spain and Morocco, our country, on the occasion of Royal Decree 1462/2001, of December 21, which granted the Canary Islands 1 to 9 hydrocarbon research permits off Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, the Kingdom of Spain drew the median line unilaterally, that is, without negotiating, which was protested by Morocco and even, according to some authors, was the original origin of the Perejil conflict. According to my news, both states have created a negotiating group that, despite meeting on several occasions, have not yet reached any agreement, although they have decided to start from the median line as an initial point.
Regarding the Sahara, point six of the letter from the Legal Advisor of the United Nations of 2002 addressed to the Security Council says: On November 14, 1975, Spain, Morocco and Mauritania issued in Madrid a declaration of principles on Western Sahara (the “Madrid Agreement”), according to which the powers and responsibilities of Spain, as administering Power of the Territory, were transferred to a temporary tripartite administration. The Madrid Agreement did not transfer sovereignty over the Territory or confer on any of the signatories the status of administering Power, a condition that Spain, by itself, could not have transferred unilaterally. The transfer of administrative authority over the Territory to Morocco and Mauritania in 1975 did not affect the international status of Western Sahara as a Non-Self-Governing Territory. As the self-determination process has not concluded, the territory remains under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Spain, without, in principle, any power being able to draw any maritime space from the Sahara or exploit its resources.
Be that as it may, in the maritime spaces located between Madeira, the Savage Islands, the Canary Islands, Morocco and the Sahara (however the conflict ends) what should be established, in my opinion, is a condominium (for example, the judgment of the International Court of Justice of 1992 relating to the Gulf of Fonseca between El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua) and jointly exploit all the resources, especially the most important ones, which are the polymetallic nodules that are found in its subsoil. The oil that exists (prospecting has been carried out since the 70s of the last century) is in principle expensive to extract and there is not much either, but there are resources in the subsoil and, apparently, quite a few, especially to the south of the archipelago.
Claudio Doreste Torrent. Lawyer. Master in Maritime Law.
