EU Fines France for Failures on Fisheries
Date: 02-Mar-06
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Darren Ennis
Paris said it would appeal against the fines, the latest chapter in a 15-year-old battle between the EU executive and France over fishing.
The Commission said France had not followed a European Court of Justice ruling in July 2005 requiring it to take action over failings in its fisheries control system and breaches of EU rules on landing immature fish, particularly hake.
The Commission demanded France make a payment of 57.76 million euros ($69 million) for every six-month period from the July 2005 decision until it complied with its obligations.
"France has done quite a lot since July but not enough," a spokeswoman for the Commission said. "They have failed to put into effect a number of announcements and their main piece of legislation didn't come into force until Jan. 6 last."
The Commission said there were still insufficient controls in place and sanctions imposed by France were not effective.
The French Farm Ministry in Paris refuted this saying it had increased checks on fisheries by 50 percent since July 2005. These checks showed less than three percent of samples were smaller than the authorized size, it said.
"The Commission's decision is therefore seriously disproportionate," it said in a statement. "France will appeal to the Court of Justice to ask for the cancellation of the Commission's decision."
The battle between Brussels and Paris over fishing began nearly 15 years ago when the Commission launched its first case against the French.
The European Court of Justice ruled in favour of the Commission in June 1991, stating that France had failed to enforce EU laws in the area of under-sized fish.
The Commission continued monitoring of the French fishing fleet and decided to take France to court again in 2002.
Brussels had sought a daily fine of 316,500 euros, but the Court of Justice opted for the six-monthly seasonal fine in July. It added a one-off fine of 20 million euros for what it called "persistent infringements", a fine which France accepts.
France has two months to launch an appeal but will have to pay the seasonal fine up front regardless of the outcome of the appeal.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Brussels and Sybille Delahamaide in Paris)