Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2007:653
Date: 2007-11-08
Language of the case: Spanish
Court formation: Third Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Accession;Agriculture and Fisheries;Fisheries policy
Concepts: Intervention;Community rules;Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of nationality;Provisions relating to fisheries
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded
Origin: Spain

Summary of the Judgment 1. Procedure – Intervention – Plea of inadmissibility not raised by the defendant (Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 40, fourth para.; Rules of Procedure of the Court, Art. 93(4)) 2. Community law – Principles – Equal treatment – Discrimination on grounds of nationality (Act of Accession of 1985; Council Regulation No 27/2005) 3. Accession of new Member States to the Communities – Spain – Fisheries (Act of Accession of 1985, Arts 156 to 164; Council Regulation No 27/2005) 4. Fisheries – Conservation of the resources of the sea – System of fishing quotas (Council Regulation No 2371/2002, Art. 20) 1. Under the fourth paragraph of Article 40 of the Statute of the Court of Justice, an application to intervene is to be limited to supporting the form of order sought by one of the parties. In addition, as Article 93(4) of the Rules of Procedure provides, the intervener must accept the case as he finds it at the time of his intervention. He therefore has no standing to raise a plea of inadmissibility not formulated in the defendant’s pleadings. (see paras 27-28) 2. By not treating the Kingdom of Spain, in Regulation No 27/2005 fixing for 2005 the fishing opportunities and associated conditions for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks, applicable in Community waters and, for Community vessels, in waters where catch limitations are required, in the same way as the Member States which participated in the initial allocation of fishing quotas prior to that Member State’s accession to the Community, or in subsequent allocations during the transitional period, the Council has not acted in a discriminatory manner towards it. It is important to distinguish between the concept of access to Community waters and the concept of access to resources. Whilst, after the end of the transitional period, the Kingdom of Spain may again have access to the waters of the North and Baltic Seas, it does not follow that Spanish vessels can have access to the resources of those seas in the same proportions as the vessels of the Member States which participated in the initial or subsequent allocations. (see paras 47, 51) 3. By not allocating to the Kingdom of Spain, under Regulation No 27/2005 fixing for 2005 the fishing opportunities and associated conditions for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks, applicable in Community waters and, for Community vessels, in waters where catch limitations are required, certain fishing quotas in the North and Baltic Seas, the Council did not infringe the Act of Accession of the Kingdom of Spain and the Republic of Portugal. Articles 156 to 164 of that Act define the regime applicable in the fishing sector only during the transitional period. Those articles cannot therefore serve, in principle, as the basis for claims concerning a period commencing on a date subsequent to the end of that transitional period. At the end of the transitional period, therefore, what applies is the acquis communautaire, which includes the allocation formula fixed by the existing rules at the time of the accession of the Kingdom of Spain. (see paras 59, 61, 63) 4. The requirement of relative stability in the allocation of fishing opportunities among Member States, imposed by Article 20(1) of Regulation No 2371/2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy, must be understood as meaning that each Member State is to retain a fixed percentage and that the allocation formula originally laid down will continue to apply as long as an amending regulation has not been adopted. In so far as the application of the principle of relative stability to existing fishing opportunities involves the retention of an allocation formula already laid down among the Member States, the establishment of a first formula for allocation among the Member States involves the conferral of new fishing opportunities and an allocation which takes into account the interests of each of them. The concept of ‘interests’ may encompass the need to safeguard the relative stability of fishing activities, but is not limited to that need. Thus, when a first allocation formula is fixed per Member State, particularly after the Member States have exercised their right to fish in a zone and for species for which the Community has an overall quota, the Council decides by taking into account the interests of each of them, in accordance with the provisions of Article 20(2) of Regulation No 2371/2002. Since, by definition, no allocation formula can be retained in such a case, there is no need to apply the provisions of Article 20(1) of that regulation. (see paras 85-88)