Luxembourg, 13/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Court of Justice has found the Netherlands guilty of not having adopted, in due time (before 1 January 1999), the 1997 Council directive on the safety of fishing vessels. The Netherlands does not challenge the fact that it is behind time, but gives the following explanation for the time taken: - many of the provisions of the directive consist only in a reference to the text of the Torremolinos Protocol of 1993, which amended the International Convention for the Safety of Fishing Vessels, signed at Torremolinos in 1977; - there was no translation of the consolidated text of that convention of which there is no official version; - provisions of the said protocol also lack clarity, which made implementation particularly difficult; - and the protocol had not been published in the Official Journal of the EC in all the Community languages.
The draft text transposing the EC directive should also be approved by the governments of Aruba and the Dutch Antilles, which has taken time. The fourth Chamber of the Court of Justice, presided by Swedish Judge Stig von Bahr, does not accept any of these arguments, and finds the Netherlands guilty of failure to fulfil its obligation.