Green Party MEP Grace O’Sullivan has welcomed this week’s High Court judgment which will see the European Court of Justice being asked to rule on a missed deadline set for sustainably set fish quotas in European waters.
Environmental group Friends of the Irish Environment CLG (FIE) brought the case to the High Court over the alleged failure by the Irish State to meet a legally defined deadline of ending overfishing of all stocks by 2020.
FIE, which was supported by the legal non-governmental organisation (NGO) Client Earth, claimed the main goal of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) was to restore and maintain fish stocks above sustainable levels.
The European Commission had set a target of 2015 for sustainable levels for all fish stocks to be achieved - or by 2020 at the latest.
FIE claimed the European Commission has set total allowable catches for national fleets, for a wide range of fish stocks, at unsustainable levels in 2020.
It said it would have “profound negative consequences for the marine environment and the sustainability of European fishing activities”.
In his judgment on February 8th, Mr Justice Barr said that while the court was satisfied that the issues between the parties in relation to the 2020 Regulation and the fisheries management were “moot”, given the fact that time had passed, it was likely to be a “live issue” in respect of other regulations issued by the EU Council in the future.
“Accordingly, it is desirable that a decision be reached on the general legality of such regulations in terms of their compliance with Article 2(2) of the CFP,” he said.
He also said that the case raised issues of “general public importance” for two reasons.
“Firstly, the application raises issues in relation to the conservation of fish stock, which are of fundamental importance to the citizens of the EU and secondly, the issues raised
herein have enormous ramifications for the fishing industry in the member states of the EU,” Mr Justice Barr said.
Mr O’Sullivan, who is Green Party spokesperson on the marine and a member of the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee, welcomed the ruling.
“Time after time, member states, including Ireland, have exceeded the scientific advice provided for sustainable fishing levels,” she said.
“In the North Atlantic alone, around 46% of Northeast Atlantic total allowable catches (TACs) could be considered ‘unsustainable’ in 2020,” she said.
“ This goes against the EU’s own legal commitment to end overfishing and is extremely damaging to our marine environment, not to mention the fishing communities that depend on healthy stocks,” she said.
Ms O’Sullivan said it was significant that this first challenge came from Ireland, as the European Commission recently expressed concern that “Ireland continues to be the most expensive member state in which to make an environmental claim before the courts”.
“The European Union has set many ambitious goals recently, in light of the European Green Deal and the Environment Action Programme to 2030. But if we do not act on the science, then our efforts to end the climate and biodiversity crises will be pointless,” she added.
