Watch VIDEO. The demarcation of the outer limit of the Argentine Continental Shelf, beyond 200 miles, was incorporated into a law passed unanimously in the National Congress. This regulation is extremely important from the point of view of sovereignty, but also for political and economic reasons.
The new regulation, which contains the result of the uninterrupted work carried out for more than two decades by the National Commission on the Outer Limit of the Continental Shelf (COPLA in the Spanish acronym), will allow more opportunities to explore and exploit the immeasurable resources of the bed and subsoil of the sea and will increase legal security for the granting of concessions.
The bill achieved the consensus of all parliamentary blocs and was passed unanimously in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, as well as the bill to create the National Council of Affairs relative to the Malvinas, South Georgia, and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime spaces. Its definitive approval took place last August 5.
The Secretary of the Malvinas, Antarctica and the South Atlantic of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Daniel Filmus, highlighted that “these two initiatives were promoted by the Executive Power, as well as the modification of the Federal Fisheries Regime, which recently entered the Chamber of Deputies, to toughen the sanctions against vessels that fish illegally in Argentine waters and thus defend our resources. These are three bills that President Alberto Fernández had promised to send to the National Congress during his speech before the Legislative Assembly, at the opening of sessions last March 1st”.
The law of definitive demarcation of the continental shelf is the concrete result of a State policy that Argentina has been developing without interruption during governments of different political signs. It involves the work carried out by the scientific, technical and legal team of COPLA, which was created in 1997 and whose general coordinator is Frida Armas Pfirter.
On March 11, 2016 and March 17, 2017, the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), an organism created by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), adopted the Recommendations on the Argentine submission of the outer limit of the continental shelf made on April 21, 2009. In this framework, Argentina has delineated the outer limit of its continental shelf pursuant to the provisions of the UNCLOS and to the scientific and technical guidelines and the Regulations of the CLCS.
Argentina made a complete submission of the outer limit of its continental shelf, including the natural extension of its territory belonging to the continental part, insular part and to the Argentine Antarctic, reaffirming, once again, its sovereignty over the Malvinas, South Georgia, and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime spaces illegitimately occupied by the United Kingdom.
The CLCS did not consider the presentation corresponding to the area of the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands in accordance with its Rules of Procedure that prevent it from considering the presentation made by any State Party to a territorial or maritime dispute.
