Case C‑565/13

Ove Ahlström and Others

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Hovrätten för Västra Sverige)

‛Reference for a preliminary ruling — External relations — Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Kingdom of Morocco — Exclusion of any possibility for Community vessels to carry out fishing activities in Moroccan fishing zones on the basis of a licence issued by the Moroccan authorities without the intervention of the competent European Union authorities’

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber), 9 October 2014

International agreements — International agriculture and fisheries agreements — Communities-Morocco Partnership Agreement — Exclusion of any possibility for Community vessels to carry out fishing activities in Moroccan fishing zones on the basis of a licence issued by the Moroccan authorities without the intervention of the competent European Union authorities

(Communities-Morocco Partnership Agreement, Art. 6; Council Regulation No 764/2006))

The Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Kingdom of Morocco, approved on behalf of the Community by Regulation No 764/2006, in particular Article 6 of that agreement, must be interpreted as excluding any possibility for Community vessels to carry out fishing activities in Moroccan fishing zones on the basis of a licence issued by the Moroccan authorities without the intervention of the competent European Union authorities.

Granting Community vessels the possibility of accessing Moroccan fishing zones in order to carry out fishing activities there by dispensing with the intervention of the competent European Union authorities would run contrary to the objective of the Fisheries Agreement, which seeks, as is apparent from its preamble and from Articles 1 and 3, to introduce responsible fishing in those fishing zones in order to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources. Such a possibility might be liable to increase access by Community vessels to those fishing zones and to intensify their exploitation of those resources there without the control of the competent European Union authorities.

(see paras 31, 34, operative part)

Case C‑565/13

Ove Ahlström and Others

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Hovrätten för Västra Sverige)

‛Reference for a preliminary ruling — External relations — Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Kingdom of Morocco — Exclusion of any possibility for Community vessels to carry out fishing activities in Moroccan fishing zones on the basis of a licence issued by the Moroccan authorities without the intervention of the competent European Union authorities’

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber), 9 October 2014

International agreements — International agriculture and fisheries agreements — Communities-Morocco Partnership Agreement — Exclusion of any possibility for Community vessels to carry out fishing activities in Moroccan fishing zones on the basis of a licence issued by the Moroccan authorities without the intervention of the competent European Union authorities

(Communities-Morocco Partnership Agreement, Art. 6; Council Regulation No 764/2006))

The Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Kingdom of Morocco, approved on behalf of the Community by Regulation No 764/2006, in particular Article 6 of that agreement, must be interpreted as excluding any possibility for Community vessels to carry out fishing activities in Moroccan fishing zones on the basis of a licence issued by the Moroccan authorities without the intervention of the competent European Union authorities.

Granting Community vessels the possibility of accessing Moroccan fishing zones in order to carry out fishing activities there by dispensing with the intervention of the competent European Union authorities would run contrary to the objective of the Fisheries Agreement, which seeks, as is apparent from its preamble and from Articles 1 and 3, to introduce responsible fishing in those fishing zones in order to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources. Such a possibility might be liable to increase access by Community vessels to those fishing zones and to intensify their exploitation of those resources there without the control of the competent European Union authorities.

(see paras 31, 34, operative part)