CELEX: C2002/289/10
Language: en
Date: 2002-11-23 00:00:00
Title: Case C-271/02: Action brought on 24 July 2002 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Kingdom of Sweden

C 289/6                 EN                   Official Journal of the European Communities                                    23.11.2002
Action brought on 24 July 2002 by the Commission                        —     Council Regulations (EC) No 3362/94 (3) of 20 December
of the European Communities against the Kingdom of                            1994 and (EC) No 3074/95 ( 4) of 22 December 1995
                              Sweden                                          fixing, for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks,
                                                                              the total allowable catches for 1995 and 1996 and certain
                                                                              conditions under which they may be fished,
                         (Case C-271/02)
                                                                        —     Council Regulations (EC) No 748/95 (5) of 31 March
                         (2002/C 289/10)                                      1995 and (EC) No 3076/95 ( 6) allocating, for 1995 and
                                                                              1996, certain catch quotas between Member States for
                                                                              vessels fishing in the Norwegian exclusive economic zone
                                                                              and the fishing zone around Jan Mayen,
An action against the Kingdom of Sweden was brought before
the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 24 July             —     Council Regulations (EC) No 3370/94 (7) of 20 December
2002 by the Commission of the European Communities,                           1994, (EC) No 3082/95 ( 8) of 21 December 1995, (EC)
represented by T. van Rijn and C. Tufvesson, acting as Agents,                No 3084/95 (9) of 21 December 1995 and (EC) No 3089/
with an address for service in Luxembourg.                                    95 ( 10) of 21 December 1995, allocating, for 1995 and
                                                                              1996, catch quotas between Member States for vessels
                                                                              fishing in Latvian, Estonian or Polish waters.
The Commission claims that the Court
—     should declare that the Kingdom of Sweden:
                                                                        In addition Sweden has failed to ensure that Community
                                                                        legislation on the conservation of species is complied with by
      1.    by failing to lay down detailed provisions regarding        monitoring fishing, by carrying out adequate inspections of
            the quotas allocated to Sweden for the 1995 and             landings and recording catches and by imposing administrative
            1996 fishing years,                                         or criminal penalties on the master of the vessel or other
                                                                        persons responsible. There has thus been significant repeated
                                                                        overfishing over two years which means that the overfishing
      2.    by failing to ensure compliance with Community              must be a consequence of the failure by the Swedish authorities
            legislation on conservation by monitoring fishing,
                                                                        to discharge their monitoring obligations.
            by carrying out adequate inspections of landings and
            recording catches and by imposing administrative or
            criminal penalties on the master of the vessel or
            other persons responsible,
                                                                        Sweden has failed provisionally to prohibit fishing from vessels
                                                                        flying the Swedish flag or registered in Sweden where the
      3.    by failing provisionally to prohibit fishing from           fishing quotas allocated for the 1995 and 1996 fishing years
            fishing vessels flying its flag or registered in the
                                                                        were exhausted.
            State when the quotas allocated to Sweden for the
            1995 and 1996 fishing years were deemed to be
            exhausted,
                                                                        Moreover, Sweden has not taken appropriate measures to
      has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 9(2) of
                                                                        prevent fishing quotas from being exceeded, despite the fact
      Council Regulation (EEC) No 3760/92 ( 1) of 20 December
                                                                        that Article 9(2) of the basic regulation requires Sweden to do
      1992 establishing a Community system for fisheries and
                                                                        so.
      aquaculture and under Articles 2, 21(1) and 31 of Council
      Regulation (EEC) No 2847/93 ( 2) of 12 October 1993
      establishing a control system applicable to the common
      fisheries policy;
                                                                        (1 ) OJ L 389 of 31.12.1992, p. 1.
                                                                        (2 ) OJ L 261 of 20.10.1993, p. 1.
—     shall be ordered to pay the costs.                                (3 ) OJ L 363 of 31.12.1994, p. 1.
                                                                        (4 ) OJ L 330 of 30.12.1995, p. 1.
                                                                        (5 ) OJ L 74 of 1.4.1995, p. 18.
                                                                        (6 ) OJ L 330 of 30.12.1995, p. 51.
                                                                        (7 ) OJ L 363 of 31.12.1994, p. 90.
                                                                        (8 ) OJ L 330 of 30.12.1995, p. 76.
Pleas in law and main arguments                                         (9 ) OJ L 330 of 30.12.1995, p. 86.
                                                                        (10) OJ L 330 of 30.12.1995, p. 106.
The Commission states that Sweden has, on a large number of
occasions, exceeded the fishing quotas for the 1995 and 1996
fishing years allocated in the annexes to: