France fined €59m for illegal fishing
France was ordered today to pay a €59m penalty for failing to enforce EU fishing rules for nearly 15 years.
The French government was fined €21m in a landmark European court case last July for not complying with a 1991 verdict that the authorities had failed to prevent illegal over-fishing.
That fine has been paid – but today the European Commission decided to trigger additional hefty financial penalties the judges said could be demanded if the situation did not improve.
The Commission said French authority efforts to stop French fishermen taking undersized fish from the sea were not good enough.
Now the €59m fine must be paid every six months until an adequate fisheries control system is in place which respects EU stock conservation rules.
The penalty comes six weeks after the Commission named the UK, Denmark and Sweden as the only EU countries fully monitoring European fishing quota restrictions.
Ireland and Spain were singled out as the countries with the worst record for exceeding agreed fishing limits.
The Commission warned then that the penalty against France was on the cards.
