Call for a contiguous zone around Iceland

Five government MPs have tabled a bill in Iceland's parliament paving the way for the country to claim a contiguous zone within its exclusive economic zone in accordance with Article 33 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Convention states that a contiguous zone "may not extend beyond 24 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured." Within he contiguous zone the coastal state in question can exercise the control necessary to "prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations within its territory or territorial sea" and punish such infringement committed within that area.

The MPs say in a report with the bill that Iceland has to this date not refrained from making the most stringent demands when dealing with other countries in matters concerning the ocean. Over one hundred countries around the world have already claimed a contiguous zone including many of Iceland's neighbouring countries such as Denmark and Norway.

Three of the MPs tabling the bill come from the conservative Independence Party and two from the centrist Progressive Party.

The coalition government, formed by the two parties under Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, has the combined support of 38 MPs out of the total 63 lawmakers sitting in parliament.