Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Fisheries ° Conservation of the resources of the sea ° Community powers ° Measures for the conservation of fishery resources on the high seas ° Covered

2. Fisheries ° Conservation of the resources of the sea ° Technical conservation measures ° Regulation limiting the use of driftnets ° Legal basis ° Provisions governing the common fisheries policy ° Environmental protection considerations also taken into account ° No effect

(EEC Treaty, Arts 39 and 130s; Council Regulation No 345/92)

3. Fisheries ° Conservation of the resources of the sea ° International obligations of the Community ° Technical conservation measures ° Discretionary power of the Council notwithstanding available scientific advice ° Prohibition of the use of certain driftnets ° Legality

(Council Regulations No 170/83, Art. 2, and No 345/92)

4. Fisheries ° Conservation of the resources of the sea ° Technical conservation measures ° Prohibition of the use of driftnets ° Granting of a limited derogation by the Council under its discretionary power ° Breach of the principle of relative stability of catches and the objectives of the common fisheries policy ° None

(EEC Treaty, Art. 39; Council Regulations No 170/83, Art. 4(1) and No 345/92, Art. 1(8))

Summary

1. Where the high seas are concerned, the Community has the same rule-making authority in matters within its jurisdiction as that conferred under international law on the State whose flag the vessel is flying or in which it is registered. It has, in particular, competence to adopt, for vessels flying the flag of a Member State or registered in a Member State, measures for the conservation of the fishery resources of the high seas.

2. The limitation on the use of driftnets, imposed by Regulation No 345/92 amending for the 11th time Regulation No 3094/86 laying down certain technical measures for the conservation of fishery resources, was adopted primarily in order to ensure the conservation and rational exploitation of fishery resources and to limit the fishing effort. Those rules are therefore an integral part of the common agricultural policy, whose objectives under Article 39 of the Treaty include ensuring the rational development of production and assuring the availability of supplies, and could therefore be validly adopted by the Council solely on the basis of the provisions governing the common fisheries policy. Even if considerations of environmental protection were a contributory factor in the decision to adopt that regulation, that does not of itself mean that it must be covered by Article 130s of the Treaty.

3. It follows from the wording of Article 2 of Regulation No 170/83 establishing a Community system for the conservation and management of fishery resources that the measures for the conservation of fishery resources need not be completely consistent with the scientific advice and the absence of such advice or the fact that it is inconclusive cannot prevent the Council from adopting such measures as deems necessary for achieving the objectives of the common fisheries policy.

Thus, the Council could prohibit the use of large-scale driftnets under Regulation No 345/92 without exceeding the limits of the discretionary power conferred on it in the implementation of the common agricultural policy. The available scientific advice did not address the problem of the balanced exploitation of all the biological resources of the sea on a lasting basis and in appropriate economic and social conditions and in formulating the prohibition at issue in the light of the Community' s international duty to cooperate in the conservation and management of the living resources of the high seas the Council was merely conforming with widely-held international opinion.

4. In exercising its discretion by limiting, in Article 1(8) of Regulation No 345/92, the derogation from the prohibition on driftnets more than 2.5 kilometres long to five kilometres, and until 31 December 1993 only, the Council' s intention was to proceed gradually towards the ultimate objective of prohibiting all such nets exceeding 2.5 kilometres in length and its action was not contrary to the principle of relative stability or prejudicial to the other objectives of the common fisheries policy. The principle of relative stability of fishing activities defined in Article 4(1) of Regulation No 170/83 relates only to the distribution between the Member States of the volume of catches available to the Community, for each of the stocks of fish considered, and does not apply where fishermen from the Member States may continue to fish even if they are obliged to desist from using certain fishing methods. In pursuing the various objectives of the common agricultural policy set out in Article 39 of the Treaty, the Community institutions must constantly reconcile any conflicts between these objectives taken individually and, where necessary, allow any one of them temporary priority in order to satisfy the demands of the economic factors or conditions in view of which their decisions are made.