Ships of the Spanish Oceanographic Institute/Picture: IEO
Eduardo González. Madrid
The Government has asked the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) for the extension of the continental shelf to the west of the Canary Islands beyond 200 nautical miles.
According to information provided by the Moncloa at the beginning of December, the Executive has made this decision after the corresponding studies carried out by the Spanish Oceanographic Institute (IEO in its Spanish acronym), the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain and the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy have been carried out, which have allowed coming to the conclusion that the outer limits can be fixed beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast.
These outer limits have been fixed in accordance with the article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, according to which the coastal States have the right to establish the limits of their Continental Shelf beyond 200 nautical miles “as long as they provide sufficient geological and morphological arguments to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
The proposal to fix the outer limit of the continental shelf, which will mean an extension of 296,500 km2, was presented on Wednesday before the CLCS, and then distributed among the member States of the UN and the Convention. The petition will be examined at the XXXVIII session of the Commission, which will be celebrated in New York between July and September 2015. Afterwards, the CLCS will make the appropriate recommendations in accordance with the article 76.
From the legal point of view, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea establishes that the Continental Shelf of a coastal State is the submarine territory where the country has sovereignty rights for purposes of exploration and exploitation of its natural resources. These rights are exercised along up to 200 nautical miles from the coast or along a greater distance if the continental shelf goes beyond that limit. Therefore, in the case of the extension proposal being approved, the coastal States acquire rights of exploration and exploitation of the natural resources of the seabed and the marine subsoil of the area extended.
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This would mean an increase of 296,500 km2 for the exploitation of resources
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Spain has presented two other proposals about the limits of its continental shelf before the CLCS: the joint proposal with France, Ireland and the United Kingdom from May 2006 for the extension in the Celtic Sea and the Bay of Biscay (the final recommendations were adopted in March 2009) and the one from May 2009 for the west of Galicia, which was formally presented before the plenary session of the Commission in April 2010.