Making Environmental Principles Work under the Common Fisheries Policy

Abstract

In April 2009, the European Commission published a Green Paper on the Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. The Green Paper reinforces the Community’s commitment to sustainable, precautionary and ecosystem-based fisheries management principles. However, such a commitment already exists under the present Community fisheries regime and has not saved fish stocks from being alarmingly overfished. This article assesses the legal status and the content of these environmental principles under Community law and the implications they have for the CFP management system. Given past CFP management failures, it outlines how these principles should be designed de lege ferenda in order to make them more effective. Environmental principles must be granted legal effect if such principles are to guide political and administrative decisions under the CFP. They must guarantee definite exploitation limits and establish concrete obligations that guarantee protection of stocks within ecologically meaningful boundaries. In addition, such principles must become judicially reviewable by the Court of Justice. This would ultimately require the Council to limit its own discretion with regards to setting exploitation limits, and grant environmental groups standing before Community courts to challenge fisheries legislation in the interest of environmental protection.