Comparative Analysis of Concessions on Maritime Domain in Ports of Regional Significance in Croatia and Italy

The port system is a particularly important segment of valorisation of the sea and of the maritime orientation of any country and together with shipping it constitutes a fundamental link of the maritime industry of a country. A strong maritime economy can be built by the developing of all of its segments, systematically linked into a single entity and mutually determined. In this respect, the ports play an especially important role because they constitute the primary benchmarks of development of the maritime economy of a country. The system of concession of the maritime domain has a developmental and a protective role for the local community, the region and the country as a whole. Therefore, the system should be transparent and the procedure for granting concessions, as simple as possible. In general, concessions for the use of the maritime domain serve as a vehicle of development of the economy and allow control and supervision over the use of the maritime domain. The institute of concession is especially significant for developing countries where different interests and pressures on the maritime domain occur. In Croatia, in accordance with the law, the concessions granted in ports open to public traffic of regional importance are granted by the port authority, while in Italy they are granted by the maritime authority. The authors in the paper analyse the Croatian and Italian procedures for demarcation of the boundaries of the maritime domain and with the institute of concession. Procedures prescribed by the law for granting concessions in ports open to public traffic, their implementation in practice and their implications are especially analysed and compared. The authors explain the positive and negative sides of the legislative solutions and provide suggestions for improving the system.