Romania Asked the ICJ To Decide Who Gets the Oil Under the Black Sea Bed

Ukraine and Romania are heading towards lukewarm relations as authorities in Bucharest made good on their promise to refer to the International Court of Justice in The Hague the dividing of the Black Sea bed and allocation of exclusive economic zones.

Iulian Buga, the Romanian ambassador in The Hague presented yesterday the Court with Romania’s official application for a settlement. The request was accompanied by documents "proving that Romania’s case was well founded and in line with provisions of the international conventions," said Bogdan Aurescu, secretary of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as quoted by the AFP wire services.

The Romanian Executive officially asked the ICJ "to find a solution for partitioning the Black Sea bed between Ukraine and Romania and allocate their respective exclusive economic zones, in compliance with the provisions of the international law."
According to Aurescu, "the EU supported application guarantees a fair solution will be reached that will fulfill Romania’s national interests and secure the country’s access to oil and gas reserves [researched to be found in the region in large supplies]."
In other words, we stand a clear chance to get the ownership rights over the oil and gas reserves around the Serpents Island, which officials in Bucharest admit are the real reason for the raw with Kiev.

The ICJ ruling will in fact decide if the 17-hecatare big Serpents Island may be inhabited or not. Romania says the Island is a barren rock, Ukraine says otherwise. To that aim it dispatched military personnel on the island - who by the way have even a gynecologist caring for their health; it brought in soil and planted trees on it, with a view to prove self-sustainable life was possible to exist there.
But when asked last week what was the birth rate on the island and which are the energy and water resources granting the island self-sufficiency, Teofil Bauer, the Ukrainian ambassador to Bucharest, did not have an answer. He said that he never traveled to the Serpents Island.

If the ICJ would support Romania’s view, and deem the island is in fact a rock, then the whole oil rich sea-bed will be Romania’s to control.
The actual trial process from application to final ruling should not last more than four years. It will cost Romanian tax-payers one million euros.
Each of the parties in the trial will be represented by an agent. Aurescu will represent Romania, as he also conducted the failed now negotiations with the Ukrainians.
Diplomats in Kiev and Bucharest negotiated 26 times since 1998 and reached no conclusion.
The ICJ decision is final and biding. In case the ICJ decision is not complied with, the UN Security Council may be called to insure its enforcement.

The Ukraine’s deepening of the Bastroe channel in the Danube Delta is the other thorny issue parting Ukraine and Romania. An international symposium on "Deltas and Wet Lands" opened yesterday in Tulcea [city at the mouth of the Danube Delta] and will address the Bastroe issue too.
The notable absence will be the one of Ukrainian scientists, who declined the invitation to attend the symposium. However, renowned international experts will take part, as Petr Obdrlink and Erika Schneider, from the Rastat Institute in Germany. Romania will be represented by the Governor of the Danube Delta, Virgil Munteanu, and the director of the Danube Delta Research & Development Institute, Romulus Stiuca.

Two days ago Romanian fishermen did what Romanian authorities dared not to: they dismantled the buoys placed by Ukrainians in the Romanian section of the Danube on the Chilia arm of the Danube. Romanian Border Police said that the actions of the fishermen did not qualify "as crime." "Since they committed no crime, we can do nothing about it. The fishermen were at all times in Romanian waters only. So far the Ukrainians filed no official complaint. Though the Ukrainians were those who illegally placed the buoys on our side of the border, there was nothing we could have done now as official authorities. We had a few more months to wait for the official approval to remove the buoys from our waters. Thus, the fishermen initiative saved us further headaches," sources in the Border Police said.