Proposed by Cllr. Prince Charles Évere-Dancourt (Ineland)

PREAMBLE

To guarantee the safe passage of ships through natural waterways connecting seas and oceans, as well as to ensure unrestricted free trade and mobility worldwide, it is necessary for the European Union to act and adopt legislation protecting freedom of navigation as an essential part of the global supply chain and trade system.

SECTION I: DEFINITIONS

• Transit passage: right to temporarily transit through territorial waters of a given state for the sole purpose of continuously navigating between two different parts of the high seas whose connection is unavoidably necessary through the territorial waters of a state.
• Territorial waters: any mass of water, extending up to 10 nautical miles from a state’s coastline, in which that state exercises its sovereignty.
• International waters: any mass of water extending up from 10 nautical miles from a state’s coastline.
• Internal waters: any mass of water located within the contiguous coastline (i.e. some small bays and gulfs, harbours) or completely surrounded by land and fully located within the territorial boundaries of a single state.

SECTION II: REGULATIONS

I. Ships of any nature are entitled to freely navigate international waters.
II. Ships of any nature are entitled to transit through straits or any analogous natural waterway connecting two or more masses of international water under the right of transit passage.
III. No state shall unilaterally grant itself the right to deny or limit the passage of any ship through international waters or through territorial waters under the right of transit passage.
IV. Transit passage of a ship through territorial waters may be denied only in the event of a clear violation of European Union law and with the consent of the appropriate national court.
V. An Observatory of European Navigation shall be established, in order to oversee the proper implementation of this Act.
VI. Nations shall have complete rights over exploitation of the resources within their Territorial Waters, including those under the seabed.

SECTION III: OBSERVATORY OF EUROPEAN NAVIGATION

I. The Observatory of European Navigation (from now on, “the Observatory”) shall be established in the Free City of Europolis to oversee the proper implementation of this Act by issuing annual Freedom of Navigation reports.
II. The Observatory shall be administered by a director, appointed by the Internal Affairs Commissioner.
III. The Observatory shall be requested to issue a report any time a case on the violation of this Act is brought to the European Court of Justice, in order to assist the Court in its deliberation.

SECTION IV: ENFORCEMENT

I. All member states of the European Union are required to harmonize their national law(s) with this Act in six months of time from its approval by the European Council.
II. Breaches of this Act shall be considered a punishable and criminal offense in member states. Failure of member states to enforce this Act may be tried in the European Court of Justice.
III. Any state found guilty of violating this Act shall be made liable for any economic damages caused as well as have its right to vote in the European Council suspended for a period of up to two months.
IV. Any state found guilty of abusing the situation described in section II (IV) to unlawfully halt free navigation shall be made liable for any economic damages caused as well as have its right to vote in the European Council suspended for a period of one to three months.
V. Any official found guilty of violating this Act or of assisting others in violating this Act shall be imprisoned for a period of six to eighteen months, as well as having its passive suffrage rights suspended for a period of three to six years.

On behalf of the Government of Ineland, in light of the past yet still unsolved issue regarding navigation rights between some bodies of water and out of a sincere belief in the free movement of goods and people through the globe, I put forward the following bill to adopt a Freedom of Navigation Act so as to provide a legal framework allowing for unrestricted free navigation through our seas.

Prince Charles Évere-Dancourt
Councillor for Ineland