Brussels, 23/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 23 November, the European Commission announced that France would not incur a second penalty payment of €57 million at the end of the second six-month period since the European Court of Justice judgment of July 2005. The case goes back fifteen years and centres on enforcement of some fisheries measures, in particular the minimum size of hake for sale. This, then, brings an end to the infringement procedure against France launched in 1991.
The Commission recognised the effort France has made to improve the quality and organisation of enforcement of technical measures. In particular, it welcomed the improvement in the quality of the procedures handbooks of the various bodies responsible for enforcement (maritime affairs, gendarmerie, anti-fraud squad, customs), the measure which allows the level of risk of infringement of the rules to be assessed according to the port and vessel, and the enhancement of the areas of responsibility of national inspectors. France has also managed to “rationalise the deployment of inspectors,” said a Commission official, explaining what had changed from the time the first penalty payment was imposed (in March, after the assessment of the situation in France between July 2005 and January 2006, see EUROPE 9142) and the decision to put an end to sanctions, after the assessment of the period from January to July 2006. In addition, the Commission felt that the amendment brought to the legal framework at the start of 2006 contributed to the putting in place of an effective system to sanction wrongdoers. The Commission has now called on France to maintain this control regime and not fall back into the ways of the past. It acknowledged that it had witness a change of culture on control in France.
On 12 July 2005, the European Court of Justice condemned France to pay a lump sum of €20 million for failure to comply with a previous ruling, dating from 1991, calling on Paris to take measures to control and sanction appropriately those fishermen who were not respecting technical measures relating to net mesh and minimum sales size of catches (particularly hake). This fine, to be paid immediately was accompanied by a periodic 6-month penalty of €57,761,250 for failure to comply with the 1991 ruling. At the end of the first six-month period (12 July 2005 - 12 January 2006), the Commission assessed whether France had met all its obligations under the terms of the ruling. On 1st March 2063, the Commission decided that, in spite of progress made, France had not taken all the measures necessary to come into line fully with its obligations. France, then, had to make the penalty payment. At the end of the second six-month period (12 January - 12 July 2006), the Commission finally concluded that France had “fully met her legal obligations”. (lc)