ClientEarth launches legal action against EU over unsustainable fishing quotas
Legal action is to be brought against all 27 EU countries over the setting of unsustainable fishing quotas for 2022, two years after a deadline to end overfishing.
Under the EU’s common fisheries policy, over-exploitation of fish stocks was supposed to end in 2020 but more than 40% of all commercial stocks in EU waters were unsustainably fished last year according to official monitoring data.
The green law group ClientEarth filed a request on Friday asking the Council of the European Union to review the catch limits set by EU fisheries ministers for the north-east Atlantic in December 2021.
If it is refused, the green watchdog has said it will file a case at the court of justice of the EU later this year.
“We are taking legal action to stop EU ministers consistently allowing rampant overfishing,” said ClientEarth’s fisheries lawyer, Arthur Meeus. “These short-sighted policies are putting at risk the future of our fishing industry and the survival of coastal communities.
“Poorly considered fisheries policy is also undermining the fragile balance of our ocean – one of the biggest carbon sinks of the planet – and its capacity to mitigate climate change. If ministers don’t follow the science and protect stocks, the price will be paid not only by fish and fishers but by all of us.”
ClientEarth’s action is being filed under new access to justice rules granted last year and marks the first time that all 27 EU fisheries ministers have been legally challenged on this issue.
The group is also preparing legal action against the catch limits established for shared EU and UK fish stocks that were agreed at the same time, Meeus said.
Cod stocks are in a particularly precarious position. The North Sea has lost 80% of its cod populations since
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