Brussels, 14/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is within its rights to take emergency measures banning fishing even though quotas already allocated have not be fished, as soon as there is evidence of a serious threat to the conservation of living aquatic resources or to the marine ecosystem resulting from fishing activities. That was the decision of the Court of Justice of the EU in a ruling (case C-611/12P) delivered on Tuesday 14 October, judging legal the Commission's 2008 decision to prohibit French fishermen from fishing for bluefin tuna before their fishing licences had expired.
The French fishermen had brought actions for damages, arguing that the Commission had failed to meet its contractual obligations. The Commission had taken emergency measures prohibiting the French fishermen from fishing bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic Ocean from 16 June 2008 when the fishermen had been granted special fishing licences authorising them to fish for that species, within the limits of the individual quotas set, until 30 June of that year. The action for damages referred, then, to the two weeks in which the fishermen were prevented from working.
In its judgment of November 2012, the General Court rejected the action, taking the view that the quotas did not confer any guarantee to the fishermen of being able to fish the full quota and, therefore, that the harm could not be considered to be real and certain. While the Court has once again found that the fishermen cannot seek damages, it has nonetheless overturned the General Court ruling.
The Court found that the General Court had erred in law in basing its decision on such considerations. According to the Court, the fishermen had failed to establish the existence of a sufficiently serious breach of a rule of law intended to confer rights on individuals. The reason is that the Commission was fully within its rights to take emergency measures of this sort and to restrict the freedom to pursue fishing activities, under the terms of Council Regulation 2371/2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources under the common fisheries policy, without having to wait until quotas have been reached. It can do so if there is evidence of a serious threat to the marine ecosystem. (JK)