Upcoming Events

National | Environment

no events match your query!

New Events

National

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link Ukraine Buys Huge Amounts of Russian Fue... Fri Jan 20, 2023 08:34 | Antonia Kotseva

offsite link Turkey Has Sent Ukraine Cluster Munition... Thu Jan 12, 2023 00:26 | Jack Detsch

offsite link New Israeli Government Promises to Talk ... Tue Jan 10, 2023 21:13 | Al Majadeen

offsite link Russia Training Iranian Pilots Ahead of ... Tue Jan 10, 2023 15:19 | The Times of Israel

offsite link Lukashenko Abolishes Copyright Protectio... Tue Jan 10, 2023 15:05 | Nikki Main

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
A Blog About Human Rights

offsite link UN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights

offsite link 5 Year Anniversary Of Kem Ley?s Death Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:34 | Human Rights

offsite link Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights

offsite link Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights

offsite link Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Are We Being Gaslit Over the Cause of the Princess of Wales?s Cancer? Fri Mar 29, 2024 07:00 | Melissa Kite
First Charles and then Kate ? it's hard to ignore the soaring cancer rate when two members of the Royal Family are diagnosed within weeks. But are we being gaslit about what's behind the surge, asks Melissa Kite.
The post Are We Being Gaslit Over the Cause of the Princess of Wales’s Cancer? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Fri Mar 29, 2024 00:04 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the virus and the vaccines, the ?climate emergency? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Women?s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player ?Broke Opponent?... Thu Mar 28, 2024 19:30 | Will Jones
A women?s football competition has been branded misogynist after it was won by a team featuring five transgender players, amid accusations one had broken an opponent?s leg in two places.
The post Women’s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player “Broke Opponent’s Leg” ? But Teams Who Refuse to Play Against Them Are Branded “Discriminatory” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Further Evidence Gaza Casualty Numbers Are Fake Thu Mar 28, 2024 17:36 | Will Jones
The evidence that the Gaza casualty numbers from the Hamas-run Health Ministry (now over 32,000) are wildly inflated continues to mount. Mark Zlochin looks at what the proportions of male and female UNRWA workers tell us.
The post Further Evidence Gaza Casualty Numbers Are Fake appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Don?t Be Fooled by the ?Britain is Growing? Fairytales Thu Mar 28, 2024 15:22 | David Craig
Don't be fooled by the 'Britain is growing' fairytales, says David Craig. Any 'growth' is accounted for by the hike in the benefits bill and in civil servants' pay and a heap of other unproductive deficit spending.
The post Don’t Be Fooled by the ‘Britain is Growing’ Fairytales appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Moscow attack reminds us of the links between Islamists and Kiev's fundamentalis... Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:57 | en

offsite link Failure to assist a people in danger of genocide, by Hassan Hamadé Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:32 | en

offsite link Yugoslavia March 24, 1999 The Founding War of the New Nato, by Manlio Dinucci Sun Mar 24, 2024 05:15 | en

offsite link France opposes Russian Korean-style peace project in Ukraine Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:11 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N°79 Fri Mar 22, 2024 11:40 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Common Fisheries Policy must be annuled by European Court of Justice

category national | environment | press release author Monday June 22, 2020 18:40author by foie Report this post to the editors

Press Release - Friends of the Irish Environment 22nd June 2020

High Court to hear challenge against unsustainable fishing in Ireland and the EU

The Irish High Court today formally initiated a Judicial Review proceedings aimed at challenging the EU Regulation setting 2020 fishing quotas under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) because of its failure to meet a legally defined deadline of ending overfishing in all stocks by 2020.

A judge will be assigned on July 15th to hear the application for leave to apply for a Judicial Review from the environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment.

FRIENDS OF THE IRISH ENVIRONMENT
PRESS BRIEFING
22 JUNE 2020
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

High Court to hear challenge against unsustainable fishing in Ireland and the EU

The Irish High Court today formally initiated a Judicial Review proceedings aimed at challenging the EU Regulation setting 2020 fishing quotas under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) because of its failure to meet a legally defined deadline of ending overfishing in all stocks by 2020.

A judge will be assigned on July 15th to hear the application for leave to apply for a Judicial Review from the environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment.

According to Kate Ruddock, NGO spokesperson, ‘This legal action aims to challenge the short-term political decision-making process which in the long term is destroying the Irish fishing industry. If this challenge is successful it will push politicians to take decisions that allow stocks to recover to a level where fishing can be guaranteed into the future. However, no request has been made to suspend the implementation of the 2020 decision on TACs because we do not want to harm fishing activities – in fact the motivation behind this case is to protect the Irish and European fisheries from collapse.’

In 2013, as part of the last reform of the CFP, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament agreed in Article 2(2) of the CFP Regulation to end overfishing by 2015 ‘where possible’ and by 2020 ‘at the latest’. This measure was designed to restore all stocks above healthy levels capable of producing the ‘maximum sustainable yield’ (*MSY) and to implement the ‘precautionary approach to fisheries management’.

These rules aim to ensure sustainable fishing opportunities in the long term. Indeed, a study by the New Economics Foundation [Notes] concluded that restoring fish populations and subsequently exploiting most commercial EU fish stocks in North Atlantic waters in line with their MSY levels would deliver more than 2 million tonnes of additional seafood per year, an extra €1.6 billion in annual revenue, and over 20,000 new jobs.

TOTAL ALLOWABLE CATCHES [TAC]
Every December fisheries ministers from across the EU meet to set the fishing limits, or ‘Total Allowable Catches’ (TACs) for the next year. They have before them the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (‘ICES’) recommendation for catch levels that should not be exceeded to allow the stocks to recover and remain above sustainable levels. The advice of the ICES is peer reviewed by independent scientists who were not involved in preparing the original advice and who have no vested interest in the outcome of the process and is therefore considered to be the best available scientific advice.

Yet around half of the TACs set by the Council in December 2019 exceed the scientific advice provided by ICES, according to an analysis by the environmental law charity ClientEarth who are supporting Friends of the Irish Environment in bringing this case. This habit of endorsing overfishing is jeopardising the long-term economic, social, and environmental sustainability of European fishing activities.

In some cases, scientists have been constantly advising that there should be no catches of certain vulnerable stocks. For example: ICES advice for cod in the west of Scotland has been 0 tonnes year after year but this year the TAC actually increased to 1279 tonnes, of which 22% went to Ireland.

Similarly, ICES advice for the Celtic Sea cod was also 0 tonnes, yet the 2020 Regulation has set the TAC at 805 tonnes, with more than 50% allocated to Ireland. Whiting and plaice are also cited in the pleadings, both of which had ICES recommendations of 0 tonnes, with Ireland benefiting from 57% and 44% respectively of the non-zero TACs set despite this advice.

The issues related to zero catches go to the heart of this case. Friends of the Irish Environment argues that the EU Member States have a political and legal obligation to follow the best available scientific advice for all stocks whether they are targeted or caught as bycatch. Moreover, sustainable fisheries management requires taking a long-term perspective in balancing the social, economic and environmental impact of fishing measures.

WHY IRELAND?
A recent ClientEarth study [Notes] on which Member States have been lobbying for higher than scientifically advised TACs in the period from 2017 to 2019 shows that Ireland is among the Member States that have most actively advocated for higher TACs, along with others like Spain and France.

Moreover, in the challenged Regulation, Ireland benefits significantly from unsustainable TACs by having considerable shares in 13 of the stocks that exceed the scientific advice.
‘Even though the Irish government and Minister Creed are partly responsible for the decisions taken regarding catch limits and quotas, ultimately these decisions are taken by the Council of EU fisheries ministers as a whole, who are both collectively and individually bound by the CFP’s rules. Exceeding the MSY exploitation rate is incompatible with the basic regulation of the CFP and must be annulled by the Court of Justice of the European Union’, said Ms. Ruddock.

FIE is asking the Irish Courts to refer the case to the European Court of Justice.

FIE is represented by FP Logue, solicitors, with James Devlin, SC and John Kenny BL.
===============
CONTACT
Fred Logue, FP Logue Solicitors: 353 (0) 1 531 3510
Kate Ruddock, Irish NGO spokesperson 353 (0) 1 639 4652

NOTES
*MSY is defined in Article 4.7 of the CFP Regulation as “the highest theoretical equilibrium yield that can be continuously taken on average from a stock under existing average environmental conditions without significantly affecting the reproduction process”. Common Fisheries Policy Basic Regulation (No. 1380/2013).

ClientEarth is a charity that uses the power of the law to protect people and the planet. We are international lawyers finding practical solutions for the world’s biggest environmental challenges. We are fighting climate change, protecting oceans and wildlife, making forest governance stronger, greening energy, making business more responsible and pushing for government transparency. We believe the law is a tool for positive change. From our offices in London, Brussels, Warsaw, Berlin and Beijing, we work on laws throughout their lifetime, from the earliest stages to implementation. And when those laws are broken, we go to court to enforce them.
See:
https://www.documents.clientearth.org/library/download-info/taking-stock-are-tacs-set-to-achieve-msy/

New Economics
The New Economic Foundation works with people igniting change from below and carrying out rigorous research to fight for change at the top.
https://neweconomics.org/2020/03/landing-the-blame-overfishing-in-the-northeast-atlantic-2020

Pew
The Pew Charitable Trust, founded in 1948, is a global research and public policy organization originating in the United States which uses evidence-based, nonpartisan analysis to solve today's challenges. See:
Analysis of Fisheries Council agreement on fishing opportunities in the north-east Atlantic for 2020, 8 May 2020
https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2020/05/080520_analysis_of_fisheries_council_agreement_on_fishing_opportunities_in_the_nea_for_2020.pdf

Copyright © 2020 Friends of the Irish Environment, All rights reserved.
Press Release

Our mailing address is:
Friends of the Irish Environment
Kilcatherine
Eyeries, Cork P75 CX53
Ireland

Related Link: https://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/press-releases/17819-high-court-to-hear-challenge-against-unsustainable-fishing-in-ireland-and-the-eu
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy