Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:61
Date: 1999-02-09
Language of the case: Swedish
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Accession;Agriculture and Fisheries;Fisheries policy
Procedure: Action for annulment - unfounded
Origin: Sweden

Summary of the Judgment 
Fisheries — Conservation of the resources of the sea — System of fishing quotas — 
Allocation of fishing opportunities between Member States — Regulation No 390/97 
fixing and allocating the allowable catches for the Community for 1997 — Calculation of 
the share of cod catches to be allocated to Sweden — Whether Article 121 of the 1994 Act 
of Accession infringed — No such infringement 
(1994 Act of Accession, Art. 121(1); Council Regulation No 390/97, Annex I) 
Article 121(1) of the Act concerning the 
conditions of accession of the Republic of 
Austria, the Republic of Finland and the 
Kingdom of Sweden does not exclude 
application of the method of allocation set 
out therein for determining the share of 
catches allocated to the Kingdom of Swe­
den to fishing carried out under agreements 
I - 3885 
SUMMARY — CASE C-206/97 
concluded between the Community and 
third countries, whether such fishing takes 
place inside or outside Community fishing 
waters. However, as regards cod fishing in 
Zone III b, c and d (referred to in the table 
set out in that provision), that method of 
allocation applies only to fishing opportu­
nities in the Community fishing waters and 
does not apply to the 'compensation 
cod' — which the Community obtained 
from third States in order to offset the 
reduction suffered by certain Member 
States as a result of the Act of Accession, 
in their share of allowable catches — even 
though, in some cases, this may be caught 
in Community fishing zones. 
The Council was therefore right to base its 
calculation, in Annex I to Regulation 
No 390/97 fixing, for certain fish stocks 
and groups of fish stocks, the total allow­
able catches for 1997 and certain condi­
tions under which they may be fished, of 
cod catches allocated to the Kingdom of 
Sweden in Zone III b, c and d only on the 
total allowable catch allocated to the 
Community by the International Baltic 
Sea Fishery Commission and to exclude 
the transfers of resources represented by the 
'compensation cod'. 
Ι-3886