Notice for the OJ

 

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Action brought on 18 December 2003 by Cofradía de Pescadores San Pedro de Bermeo, Vizcaya, and Others v Council of the European Union

(Case T-415/03)

(Language of the case: Spanish)

An action was brought before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities on 18 December 2003 against Council of the European Union by Cofradía de Pescadores San Pedro de Bermeo,Vizcaya, and Others established at GuiPúzcoa and Vizcaya, Spain, represented by the lawyers Emiliano Garayar Gutiérrez, Gervasio Martínez-Villaseñor, Anna García Casatillo and Miguel Troncoso Ferrer.

The applicants claim that the Court of First Instance should:

-    Declare that the Community has incurred non-contractual liability by making a deduction from the percentage of the Total Allowable Catch of anchovies to which Spain and the fleet authorised to fish for anchovies in ICES zone VIII are entitled in the years 1996 to 2001, by transferring Portugal's quota in ICES zone IX for it to be fished by France in ICES zone VIII;

-    Compel the Community, represented by the Council, to compensate the applicants for the real and certain harm suffered as a result of the acts of the Council, comprising both consequential damage and loss of profits, in the terms set out in the present application and its annexes;

-    Order the Community, represented by the Council, to pay all the costs incurred by the applicants in the context of the present proceedings.

Pleas in law and main arguments:

The purpose of the present action is to seek compensation for the damage suffered by the applicants as a result of the removal between 1996 and 2001 of part of the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of anchovies to which Spain is entitled in ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) zone VIII, following the authorisation granted by the Council of the European Union for the transfer of Portugal's quota in ICES zone IX for it to be fished by France in zone ICES VIII.

In support of their claims, the applicants submit that the alleged illegality fulfils all the requirements laid down by the case-law to give rise to non-contractual liability on the part of the Community.

As regards the condition concerning a sufficiently serious breach of a superior rule of law, they refer to contravention of the principles of relative stability, legal certainty and protection of legitimate expectations.

They state, in particular, that the principle of relative stability serves to guarantee compliance with the quota allocated to Spain in the Act of Accession, according to which Spain is entitled to 90 percent and France to 10 percent of anchovy catches in ICES zone VIII. Accordingly, the quota swaps provided for in Article 8 (4) (ii) of Regulation No 3760/92 and Article 9 (1) thereof must be carried out without changing the overall balance of percentages laid down in the Act of Accession. Consequently, the contested authorisation of swaps, the result of which is to deprive Spain and the Spanish fleet of the permitted anchovy catches in ICES zone VIII initially assigned to them, contravenes both the principle of relative stability and the Act of Accession (Article 161(1)(f)). Thus, the Council also acted in breach of the principle of legal certainty, infringing upon the legitimate expectations of the economic agents involved.

The applicants also allege that the Council has misused its powers.

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