Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2005:365
Date: 2005-10-19
Language of the case: Spanish
Court formation: Third Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries;Fisheries policy
Concepts: Community rules;Provisions relating to fisheries
Procedure: Action for damages - unfounded;Application for measures of inquiry - inadmissible
Origin: Spain

Summary of the Judgment Fisheries – Conservation of the resources of the sea – System of fishing quotas – Distribution between Member States of the volume of available catches – Principle of relative stability – Taking into account of the particular needs of the regions and of fishing-dependent communities – Subjective rights not created for individuals (Art. 288, second para., EC; 1985 Act of Accession, Art. 161(1)(f); Council Regulation No 3760/92, Art. 8(4)(i) and (ii)) The principle of relative stability set out in Article 8(4)(i) and (ii) of Regulation No 3760/92 establishing a Community system for fisheries and aquaculture, which provides that the Council is to distribute the fishing opportunities between Member States in such a way as to assure each Member State relative stability of fishing activities for each of the stocks concerned, reflects a criterion for the distribution between Member States of Community fishing opportunities in the form of quotas allocated to the Member States and does not therefore confer on fishermen any guarantee that they can catch a fixed quantity of fish, since the requirement of relative stability must be understood as meaning merely maintenance of a right to a fixed percentage for each Member State in that distribution. In the same way, the sole object of Article 161(1)(f) of the Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal is to apportion the quota for anchovy in a defined area; it makes no reference to the situation of anchovy fishermen in the two countries which may fish in that area nor, a fortiori, to any obligation on the Council’s part to take account of the particular situation of those fishermen when it authorises a transfer of the quota for anchovy from a contiguous area to that area. Consequently, the principle of relative stability and Article 161(1)(f) of the Act of Accession identify with sufficient precision the States as holders of the fishing rights and define the content of those rights, showing that those rules of law are not intended to confer rights on individuals. In that regard, it is of little import that, in accordance with the 13th recital in the preamble to Regulation No 3760/92, the relative stability provided for by that regulation must take account of the particular needs of regions where local populations are especially dependent on fisheries and related activities and that the Council, when allocating fishing opportunities among the Member States, is required to reconcile, for each of the stocks concerned, the interests represented by each Member State with particular regard to its traditional fishing activities and, where relevant, its local populations and industries dependent on fishing. Traditional fishing rights can enure only to the benefit of States, to the exclusion of individual vessel owners, so that the latter cannot rely on an individual right the infringement of which entitles them to compensation under the second paragraph of Article 288 EC. (see paras 87, 89, 91, 93-96)