By setting fishing levels above zero in 2020 for certain fish stocks even though these levels had been described as ‘unsustainable’ by scientific advice, the Council of the EU “exceeded the discretion granted to it by the EU legislature”, according to the Opinion of the Advocate General Tamara Ćapeta, delivered on Thursday 15 June (C-330/22).
According to scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), cod, whiting and plaice quotas should be set at zero for 2020.
Despite this advice, the EU Council has decided, in the 2020 Quota Regulation, to set quotas for these species at levels higher than zero when these stocks are caught as unavoidable ‘by-catch’ during fishing operations targeting other stocks.
The NGO Friends of the Irish Environment has lodged an appeal on the grounds that setting quotas higher than zero for the above-mentioned stocks, despite scientific advice, contravenes the basic regulation on the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
The Advocate General pointed out that the EU legislature had set 2020 as the date from which fishing must be carried out at sustainable levels for all stocks. It also considers that the EU Council could not distinguish between ‘target catch’ and ‘by-catch’ when setting the 2020 quotas. According to Ms Ćapeta, the Court should therefore declare the 2020 Regulation partially invalid, insofar as it sets the fishing limits for the stocks in question in the waters around Ireland at a level greater than zero for 2020.
For ClientEarth and Friends of the Irish Environment, these conclusions represent “a strong signal for the preservation of marine biodiversity and the survival of the fishing industry”.
See the opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/7iw (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)