Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Fisheries ° Conservation of the resources of the sea ° Fishing quotas ° Obligations of Member States regarding control ° Practical difficulties ° Not relevant ° Provisional prohibition of fishing in time to ensure that quotas are not exceeded

(Council Regulation No 2241/87, Art. 11(2))

2. Fisheries ° Conservation of the resources of the sea ° Fishing quotas ° Control measures ° Obligation of Member States to impose penalties ° Internal difficulties irrelevant

(Council Regulation No 2241/87, Art 1(2))

Summary

1. A Member State cannot rely on practical difficulties related, for example, to deficiencies in its statistical system, in order to justify its failure to adopt appropriate control measures with regard to compliance with fishing quotas. On the contrary, it is for the Member States responsible for implementing Community regulations in the fishery products sector to overcome those difficulties by taking appropriate measures.

In particular, under Article 11(2) of Regulation No 2241/87 establishing certain control measures for fishing activities, Member States must adopt binding measures to prohibit on a provisional basis all fishing activity even before quotas are exhausted when, in the absence of such prohibition, the tonnage caught would be likely to exceed those quotas.

2. Under Article 1(2) of Regulation No 2241/87 establishing certain control measures for fishing activities, where the competent authorities of a Member State observe that the rules concerning fishery conservation and control are not being complied with, they are required to take penal or administrative action. If the competent authorities of a Member State could systematically 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 jeopardized. Consequently, when the Commission has fixed a date for prohibiting a type of fishing, a Member State is required to take penal or administrative action against persons responsible for continuing the fishing activities in question and related activities covered by the Community rules. Mere apprehension of internal difficulties, in the form of serious socio-economic problems, cannot justify a failure to apply the rules in question.