A legal challenge to fishing quotas – by the European Parliament

The Common Fisheries Policy requires EU decision makers to end overfishing by 2020. However, the EU is still a long way short of meeting this goal. In this research document, ClientEarth examines whether the European Parliament can legally challenge Regulations in which EU Member States set excessive fishing quotas after the 2020 deadline. It concludes that such a challenge could result in the annulment of unsustainable Regulations, by virtue of its incompatibility with the Common Fisheries Policy.