Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Fisheries - Conservation of fishery resources - Coastal fishing - Special rights granted to fishermen other than those of the contiguous State in areas of the latter' s coastal zone - Unilateral amendment resulting in the application by the coastal State of new baselines - Not permissible

(Council Regulation No 170/83, Art. 6(2) and Annex I)

2. Member States - Obligations - Failure to fulfil obligations - Justification based on the possible failure of another Member State - Not permissible

(EEC Treaty, Arts 169 and 170)

3. Procedure - Costs - Damages - Exemplary behaviour of the Member State responsible for a failure to fulfil obligations

(Rules of Procedure, Art. 69(3) )

Summary

1. Regulation No 170/83 represents a carefully achieved balance between the system of exclusive access to coastal waters for national

fishermen, a system which, in derogation from the principle of equal access, is allowed by the regulation both to continue and to be extended to the zones situated within the 12-mile limit, and the protection of certain activities of fishermen from other Member States within the areas listed in Annex I. That equilibrium, as it results from Article 6, could be compromised if the zones in which the fishing activities defined and authorized therein are carried out were to be shifted and included in areas in which the fishing grounds, natural conditions and density of maritime traffic were to prove very different. It follows that the scope of Annex I to the regulation cannot be altered by the unilateral action of a Member State in shifting its baselines.

It is for that reason that the combined provisions of Article 6(2) and Annex I to the above regulation must be understood as referring to baselines as they existed on 25 January 1983, the date on which the regulation was adopted, and that Member States are consequently precluded from applying in certain areas, for the purposes of the fisheries arrangements laid down for their coastal waters in those provisions, new baselines which are shifted further out to sea than those in force on that date.

2. A Member State cannot justify its failure to fulfil obligations under the Treaty by pointing to the fact that other Member States have also failed, and continue to fail, to fulfil their own obligations. Under the legal order established by the Treaty, the implementation of Community law by Member States cannot be made subject to a condition of reciprocity. Articles 169 and 170 of the Treaty provide suitable means of redress for dealing with the failure by Member States to fulfil their obligations under the Treaty.

3. The exemplary conduct of a Member State which, after adopting measures contested by the Commission and other Member States and ultimately held by the Court, under Article 169 of the Treaty, to constitute a failure to fulfil obligations, voluntarily suspended their application, thereby rendering unnecessary an application to the Court for interim measures, constitutes an exceptional circumstance within the meaning of Article 69(3) of the Rules of Procedure such as to justify an order that each party bear its own costs.