EGYPTIAN MARITIME LAW

Egypt is endowed with a Maritime Law having a wider impact, particularly due to the Suez Canal, whose transit is open for all vessels according to the relevant 1888 Convention. This member state of the Spitsbergen treaty and of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is emblematic of the one-century gradual tendency of liberalization of navigation in areas and zones different from the classical zone of high sea, against the national sovereignty of the coastal State involved (1888-1982). Egypt has exploited in a very extended way the opportunities offered by International Law, by creating optional zones of the Law of the Sea, such as contiguous zone and EEZ, and also by offering the best possible protection to underwater antiquities, as foreseen by the UNESCO Convention on the protection of the underwater cultural heritage. Last but not least, although EastMed is not directly relevant to Egypt, Greece has established a significant, multilevel collaboration with this neighbor country, the last years. Egypt has formed the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum, which also includes Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Italy and Jordan, and has signed the agreement on the partial delimitation of EEZ with Greece.