In the meantime, some already licensed offshore areas in the Ionian Sea would be released to expand a planned marine park, the ministry said on Monday, adding that an agreement had already been reached with the licensees on the issue.
Greece, which in 2020 signed an agreement on maritime boundaries with Italy, aims to create two marine parks in the Ionian and Aegean seas, for the protection of marine biodiversity, sea mammals and seabirds.
A government official told Reuters that environmental studies on the Ionian marine park – a first step in defining its boundaries – would be ready this month.
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou, Renee Maltezou, Lefteris Papadimas and Ron Bousso; Writing by Renee Maltezou, editing by David Goodman, Mark Potter and Jason Neely)