Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1 Fisheries - Conservation of the resources of the sea - System of fishing quotas - Allocation between Member States of the volume of available catches - Judicial review - Limits - Anchovy fishing opportunities increased in area VIII - Whether a manifest error of appraisal or misuse of powers - Conditions - Whether the biological equilibrium of those resources has been disturbed - Where biological, socio-economic and technical analyses are lacking or inconclusive - Irrelevant

(Council Regulations No 3760/92, Arts 4(1) and 8(4), No 3362/94 and No 746/95, Annex I, fifth heading)

2 Fisheries - Conservation of the resources of the sea - System of fishing quotas - Allocation between Member States of the volume of available catches - Common total admissible catch fixed for areas VIII and IX and transfer of quotas from area IX to area VIII authorised - Whether in breach of the obligation to ensure the rational and responsible exploitation of resources - No such breach - Whether in breach of the principle of relative stability - No such breach

(Council Regulations No 3760/92, Arts 2(1) and 8(4), No 685/95, Annex IV, point 1.1(i), final sentence, and No 746/95, Annex I, fifth heading)

Summary

1 Where, in implementation of the common agricultural policy, the Council is called upon to evaluate a complex economic situation, its discretion is not limited to the nature and scope of the measures to be taken but extends, in certain measure, to the finding of basic facts. That is the position when, pursuant to Article 8(4) of Regulation No 3760/92 establishing a Community system for fisheries and aquaculture, the Council fixes total allowable catches and distributes fishing opportunities among Member States. In reviewing the exercise of such a power, the Court must confine itself to examining whether there has been a manifest error or misuse of power or whether the authority in question has clearly exceeded the bounds of its discretion.

In the case of its allocation of Area VIII anchovy quotas to France and Spain under Regulation No 3362/94 fixing, for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks, the total allowable catches for 1995 and certain conditions under which they may be fished, the Council acted by way of precaution and not on the basis of proven scientific data. In those circumstances, the increase - under the fifth heading of Annex I to Regulation No 746/95 amending Regulation No 3362/94 - of anchovy fishing opportunities in area VIII cannot be considered to be vitiated by manifest error or misuse of power or clearly to exceed the bounds of the discretion enjoyed by the Council unless there are sufficient grounds for believing that it disturbed the biological equilibrium of those resources.

Furthermore, although Article 4(1) of Regulation No 3760/92 requires Community measures laying down the conditions of access to waters and resources to be drawn up in the light of available biological, socio-economic and technical analyses, the absence of such analyses or the fact that they are inconclusive cannot prevent the Council from adopting such measures as it deems necessary for achieving the objectives of the common fisheries policy. In those circumstances, not only is the Council justified in imposing stricter conservation measures but it may also, provided that it exercises appropriate caution, allow increased access to fishing resources.

2 In fixing (in point 1.1(i) of Annex IV to Council Regulation No 685/95 on the management of the fishing effort relating to certain Community fishing areas and resources) a common total allowable anchovy catch for areas VIII and IX and in authorising (under the fifth heading of Annex I to Regulation No 746/95) a transfer of quotas from area IX to area VIII, the Council did not act in breach of its obligation under Article 2(1) of Regulation No 3760/92 to ensure the rational and responsible exploitation of resources. Even though the anchovy stocks in those two areas are biologically different, and in the absence of sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the contested provisions have the effect of disturbing the biological equilibrium of resources in area VIII, the Council was entitled to lay down measures for the two stocks to be managed jointly.

Nor do the above provisions undermine the principle of relative stability laid down in Article 8(4)(ii) of Regulation No 3760/92. The latter provision, under which fishing opportunities are to be distributed for each of the stocks concerned in such a way as to assure the relative stability of the fishing activities of each Member State, expressly states that, at the request of the Member States directly concerned, account may be taken of regular quota exchanges since 1983, with due regard to the overall balance of shares. It follows that, provided that the overall equilibrium of the shares is preserved, that principle may be affected by exchanges which had already been effected when Regulation No 3760/92 was adopted and does not preclude subsequent exchanges. Moreover, the transfer to France of 80% of Portugal's fishing opportunities, to be fished only in waters under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of France, which was effected by means of a common total admissible catch covering areas VIII and IX, does not have the effect of increasing fishing opportunities in those areas taken together. Nor does it adversely affect the fishing opportunities allocated in area VIII, taken separately, to Member States not privy to the exchange.