EurActiv quotes the European Commission as saying:

EU member states that have repeatedly flouted EU limits on how much fish they can catch will receive greatly reduced quotas for this year, as the bloc strives to ensure sustainable fishing

The worst offenders, according still to the Commission, are France, Portugal and Spain.

What exactly that will achieve is anybody's guess as countries that are already flouting their quota limits are unlikely to stop when those quotas are reduced.

This farce has been going on since 1983 when quotas were introduced as a way of making a transition to the real Common Fisheries Policy, which is, let us not forget, equal access by all members to all the waters and all the fisheries. The arrangement of TACs and quotas is due to end in December 2012. What will happen then? Will a new system be put into place or will the fully integrated single European fishing industry be finally be launched. We shall have to see.

In the meantime, we may as well acknowledge that countries are unlikely to obey rules that are arbitrarily imposed on them by some central authority that has no understanding of such concepts as trade or local conditions.