Issues of marine environmental protection and sustainable use of marine resources have in recent years received serious attention in public debate in Croatia. With its long, rugged coastline, Croatia owns around 75% of the entire Adriatic coastline. The country’s important tourist industry is based largely on the preserved and clean marine environment of that marine and coastal area. At the same time, major challenges for the Adriatic Sea marine environment and biodiversity are on the horizon. Some of those relate to the restructuring of energy flows in Euroasia, and the future role of the Adriatic Sea where new maritime transport routes are planned, also for oil and gas. Furthermore, control over Adriatic Sea fisheries, and the need for conservation and management measures, is also a pressing issue. Moreover, unresolved marine delimitation issues have emerged in the Adriatic Sea, partly as a consequence of the dissolution of former Yugoslavia. Along with those and other complex questions, Croatia is on its way to EU membership, where careful balances between national sovereignty and common policies’ sphere will need to be made.

The key question for Croatia with respect to the Adriatic Sea today is: How to make the strategic choices and facilitate development, while at the same time preserve the unique marine environment and valuable resources of the marine and coastal area? And how, in that context, to strike the right balance between national regulation, regional cooperation and global regulatory frameworks in the Adriatic Sea area? This book analyses those questions through 33 essays divided into five parts, elaborating on: (1) Strategic and institutional requirements for Croatia’s Adriatic Sea policy; (2) The status of the Adriatic Sea and Croatia in the emerging oil transportation projects; (3) The need for regional cooperation towards designation of the Adriatic Sea as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area; (4) Issues of the exclusive economic zone in the Adriatic Sea; and (5) The Adriatic Sea marine delimitation disputes, such as between Croatia and Slovenia.