R (Greenpeace Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The High Court has rejected a challenge by Greenpeace to the UK’s system for allocating fishing quotas under the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy. Since the 1980s, the EU has issued annual allocations of quota of fish, and time at sea, to each of the Member States. The Member States then have a discretion as to how to allocate that quota domestically between fishermen. In the UK, that discretion has been exercised since 1999 by reference (inter alia) to fixed quota allocation (“FQA”) units. Those units have become tradable assets of value attracting the protection of Article 1 of the First Protocol to the ECHR. In 2013, the EU passed a new “basic regulation” for the CFP (1380/2013) which required the Member States, when allocating quota and time at sea, to “use transparent and objective criteria including those of an environmental, social and economic nature”. Greenpeace argued before the High Court that the UK’s system failed to comply with this requirement, on the principal basis that FQA units, which were used to allocate a considerable proportion of quota, were not environmental criteria at all. The High Court rejected the challenge, holding that the UK’s allocation criteria “…include environmental criteria as required by Article 17, and that far from paying them lip service, they are afforded proper weight in the allocation process”. The High Court further rejected an application by Greenpeace to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The full judgment can be read here: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2016/55.html

James Segan acted as sole counsel for the Secretary of State.