Commission of the European Communities v United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Date: 2002-11-14
34 It should be observed at the outset that Article 226 EC enables the Commission to institute proceedings for failure to fulfil obligations each time it forms the view that a Member State has failed to fulfil an obligation under Community law, without its being required to draw distinctions based on the nature or gravity of the infringement, since such proceedings are based on the objective finding that a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations under the Treaty or secondary legislation (see Case 301/81 Commission v Belgium [1983] ECR 467, paragraph 8; Case C-209/88 Commission v Italy [1990] ECR I-4313, paragraph 13; Case C-71/97 Commission v Spain [1998] ECR I-5991, paragraph 14; and Case C-333/99 Commission v France [2001] ECR I-1025, paragraphs 32 and 33).
40 The scale of those figures and the reoccurrence of the situation which they describe indicate that the instances of overfishing could only have resulted, first, from the absence of appropriate detailed rules for the utilisation of fishing quotas and, secondly, from failure by the Member State concerned to comply with its monitoring obligations (see, to that effect, Commission v France, cited above, paragraph 35).
46 The Court has already held that Article 11(2) of Regulation No 2241/87 requires Member States to adopt binding measures provisionally to prohibit all fishing activity even before quotas are exhausted. Article 21 of Regulation No 2847/93 lays down the same obligation with effect from 1 January 1994. Consequently, the Member States are required to adopt in time all the measures necessary to prevent the relevant quotas being exceeded, in order to ensure compliance with the quotas allocated to them for the purpose of conserving fishery resources (see Case C-62/89 Commission v France [1990] ECR I-925, paragraph 17; Case C-52/95 Commission v France [1995] ECR I-4443, paragraphs 29 and 30; and Joined Cases C-418/00 and C-419/00 Commission v France [2002] ECR I-3969, paragraph 58).
49 Secondly, the Court has consistently held that a Member State cannot rely on practical difficulties in order to justify its failure to adopt appropriate measures to prohibit fishing in time. On the contrary, it is required to overcome those difficulties by adopting such measures (see Case C-333/99 Commission v France, cited above, paragraph 44).
57 If the competent authorities of a Member State were systematically to refrain from taking action against the persons responsible for such infringements, both the conservation and management of fishery resources and the uniform application of the common fisheries policy would be jeopardised (Case C-52/95 Commission v France, cited above, paragraph 35).
59 In the present case it is sufficient to note that, notwithstanding the information provided by the United Kingdom in the annex to its rejoinder, that Member State instituted proceedings against the persons responsible for infringements of Community legislation in only a few cases, although a significant number of cases of overfishing were recorded for the years in question. In those circumstances, the argument put forward by the United Kingdom concerning the need for the Commission to provide specific evidence cannot, therefore, be upheld (see, to that effect, Case C-52/95 Commission v France, cited above, paragraph 36).
60 Secondly, according to settled case-law, a Member State cannot plead provisions, practices or situations in its internal legal system to justify non-compliance with obligations arising from rules of Community law (see Case C-52/91 Commission v Netherlands [1993] ECR I-3069, paragraph 36, and Joined Cases C-418/00 and C-419/00 Commission v France, cited above, paragraph 59). The specific arguments advanced by the United Kingdom to justify its failure to take penal or administrative action in certain cases therefore cannot be upheld.