Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1535324
11 EDITORIAL maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 14 MAY 2025 MALTA gave a clear indication of its intentions to ex- ploit the sea around it when parliament unanimously approved the law enabling government to declare mari- time exclusive economic zones. Nonetheless, two years down the line, the legal no- tice identifying which areas at sea will be declared as Malta's EEZ has not been published. This means that despite the legal framework being in place to create these zones, Malta has taken no follow-up action to effectively outline these zones. The EEZ is a maritime zone beyond a country's ter- ritorial waters where a coastal state has special rights to explore, exploit, and manage natural resources. During the parliamentary debate on the EEZ law, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana had said the zones Malta would identify will fall in the stretch of water between 12 nautical miles (the stretch of sea up to 12 miles is deemed to be territorial waters) up to 25 nautical miles. Caruana had insisted that this did not mean Malta will develop all this stretch of sea but define individ- ual EEZs within this area depending on the projects being considered. Formalising Malta's EEZ will give potential inves- tors peace of mind, he had said. But Caruana had also told parliament that there will be no projects on Hurd Bank, which is a shallow area in international waters off the Marsaskala coastline used for bunkering purposes by ships. "We do not want any of the new projects to disrupt this impor- tant location for the shipping industry." Within this context, the first offshore projects being considered are floating wind turbines but the exact locations have not yet been identified. Much will de- pend on the feedback received from an international call issued by the energy ministry earlier this year for offshore floating wind farms. Malta's conservative approach to consider exclusive economic zones up to the 25-mile mark around the islands is unlikely to impinge on conflicting maritime claims by neighbouring countries. We are not privy to any representations made by third countries fol- lowing the Maltese parliament's unanimous approv- al, although the northernmost area does brush Italy's southernmost reach. But an issue that cannot be overlooked once Malta does define the EEZs is the country's ability to pro- vide surveillance and security for these areas if cir- cumstances require so. Government sources, who spoke to MaltaToday, have confirmed that the designation of the EEZ will entail security obligations. "While the EEZ does not entail the same kind of sovereignty as territorial wa- ters, one cannot simply leave major economic infra- structure unprotected," a source told this newspaper. In light of the recent incident involving the human- itarian aid ship Conscience, which was allegedly at- tacked by two drones in a suspected Israeli military operation to disable the ship, Malta cannot overlook the need to invest in its defence and security capabil- ities. The ship incident was also preceded by an Israe- li military aircraft circling over Hurd Bank, outside Maltese territorial air space but well within its flight information region, several hours before the claimed attack took place. While the military aircraft appears to have been within its international rights, the ma- noeuvring at such a low altitude over Hurd Bank should have raised alarm and prompted some form of response—flying an AFM aircraft in its vicinity to show that it is being monitored, could have been one such response. The Armed Forces of Malta must have adequate sea and air assets, coupled with sophisticated radar tech- nology to be able to monitor and respond to potential threats, including vulnerable maritime infrastructure. By air assets we do not mean fighter jets—it would be ridiculous to even consider that. But having drones should not be something out of reach. But even without offshore wind farms, the country today has subsea infrastructure that delivers electric- ity and provides valuable internet connections to the rest of the world. The country has to be in a position to defend these assets if required. This is why it would make sense for Malta, with- in its limitations, to participate in EU initiatives to strengthen European security and defence. Malta must be in a position to safeguard its exclusive economic zones maltatoday MaltaToday, MediaToday Co. Ltd, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR: KURT SANSONE EDITOR: PAUL COCKS Tel: (356) 21 382741-3, 21 382745-6 Website: www.maltatoday.com.mt E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Those newly minted EU citizens would hold rights which, under EU law, override the sovereignty that member states are otherwise free to exercise over them. power to confer Maltese citi- zenship. Instead, it builds on settled jurisprudence that EU law constrains national rules conferring EU citizenship and follows the longstanding direc- tion of travel of the Court's ju- risprudence, which has already overcome objections that it is too radical. This latest judgment contin- ues to develop the concept of Union citizenship in a manner which balances the sovereignty of each Member State in deter- mining its own nationality law against the collective interest of all Member States as to who may have the extensive rights of EU citizenship which encroach on their sovereignty. At the end of the day, the con- demnable and unforgivable fact remains that a Labour govern- ment had exploited for wrong- ful purposes one of the bene- fits of EU membership which a Nationalist government suc- cessfully obtained after a hard- fought campaign.