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1. Scope 1.1. The conditions laid down in this Annex shall apply to Community vessels of length overall equal to or greater than 10 metres carrying on board any of the gears defined in point 3, and present in zone VIIe. For the purposes of this Annex, a reference to the 2008 management period means the period from 1 February 2008 to 31 January 2009.

1.2. Vessels fishing with static nets with mesh size equal to or larger than 120 mm and with track records of less than 300 kg live weight of sole according to the EC logbook in 2004 shall be exempt from the provisions of this Annex on the conditions that:

(a) such vessels catch less than 300 kg live weight of sole during the 2008 management period, and (b) such vessels shall not tranship any fish at sea to another vessel, and

(c) each Member State concerned makes a report to the Commission by 31 July 2008 and 31 January 2009 on these vessels' track records for sole in 2004 and catches of sole in 2008. When either of these conditions is not met, the concerned vessels shall with immediate effect no longer be exempted from the provisions of this Annex.

2. Definition of day present with the area For the purpose of this Annex, a day present within an area shall be any continuous period of 24 hours (or part thereof) during which a vessel is present within zone VIIe and absent from port. The time from which the continuous period is measured is at the discretion of the Member State whose flag is flown by the vessel concerned.

3. Fishing gear For the purposes of this Annex, the following groupings of fishing gears shall apply:

(a) Beam trawls of mesh size equal to or greater than 80 mm;

(b) Static nets including gill-nets, trammel-nets and tangle-nets with mesh size less than 220 mm. IMPLEMENTATION OF FISHING EFFORT LIMITATIONS 4. Vessels concerned by fishing effort limitations

4.1. Vessels using gear types identified in point 3 and fishing in areas defined in point 1 shall hold a special fishing permit issued in accordance with Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 1627/94.

4.2. A Member State shall not permit fishing with a gear belonging to a grouping of fishing gear defined in point 3 in the area by any of its vessels which have no record of such fishing activity in the years 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 or 2007 in that area unless it ensures that equivalent capacity, measured in kilowatts, is prevented from fishing in the regulated area.

4.3. However, a vessel with a track record of using a gear belonging to a grouping of fishing gear defined in point 3 may be authorised to use a different fishing gear, provided that the number of days allocated to this latter gear is greater than or equal to the number of days allocated to the first gear.

4.4. A vessel flying the flag of a Member State having no quotas in the area defined in point 1 shall not be permitted to fish in that area with a gear belonging to a grouping of fishing gear defined in point 3, unless the vessel is allocated a quota after a transfer as permitted according to the Article 20(5) of Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002 and is allocated days at sea according to points 11 or 12 of this Annex. ◄ 5. Limitations in activity Each Member State shall ensure that, when carrying on board any of the groupings of fishing gear referred to in point 3, fishing vessels flying its flag and registered in the Community shall be present within the area for no more than the number of days set out in point 7.

6. Exceptions

A Member State shall not count against the days allocated to any of its vessels under this Annex either any days when the vessel has been present within the area but unable to fish because it was assisting another vessel in need of emergency aid or any days when a vessel has been present within the area but unable to fish because it is transporting an injured person for emergency medical aid. The Member State shall provide justification to the Commission within one month of any decisions taken on this basis with associated evidence of the emergency from the competent authorities. NUMBER OF DAYS PRESENT WITHIN THE AREA ALLOCATED TO FISHING VESSELS 7. Maximum number of days 7.1. During the 2008 management period, the maximum number of days at sea for which a Member State may authorize a vessel flying its flag to be present within the area having carried on board and used any one of the fishing gears referred to in point 3 is shown in Table I.

7.2. During the 2008 management period, the number of days at sea for which a vessel is present within the total area covered by this Annex and Annex IIA shall not exceed the number shown in Table I of this Annex. However the number of days in which the vessel is present in the areas covered in Annex IIA shall comply with the maximum number fixed in accordance with Annex IIA.

7.3. During the 2008 management period, a Member State may manage its fishing effort allocation according to a kilowatt days system. By that system it may authorise any vessel concerned to be present within the area for a maximum number of days which is different from that set out in Table I for any one of the groupings of fishing gears laid down in that Table, provided that the overall amount of kilowatt days corresponding to such a grouping is respected.

For a specific grouping of fishing gears, the overall amount of kilowatt days shall be the sum of all individual fishing efforts allocated to the vessels flying the flag of the Member State concerned and qualified for that specific grouping. Such individual fishing efforts shall be calculated in kilowatt days by multiplying the engine power of each vessel by the number of days at sea it would benefit from, according to Table I, if the provisions of this point were not applied.

7.4. A Member State wishing to benefit from the provisions laid down in point 7.3 shall submit a request to the Commission with reports in electronic format containing for each grouping of fishing gears the details of the calculation based on — list of vessels authorized to fish by indicating their Community Fleet Register number (CFR) and their engine power;

— the number of days at sea for which each vessel would had initially been authorized to fish according to Table I and the number of days at sea which each vessel would benefit from in application of point 7.3. On the basis of that description, the Commission may authorize that Member State to benefit from the provisions defined in point 7.3.

8. Management periods 8.1. Member States may divide the days present within the area given in Table I into management periods of durations of one or more calendar months.

8.2. The number of days for which a vessel may be present within the area during a management period shall be fixed at the discretion of Member States concerned.

8.3. In any given management period a vessel that has used the number of days present within the area for which it is eligible shall remain in port or out of the area for the remainder of the management period unless it is using a gear for which no maximum number of days has been fixed.

9. Allocation of additional days for permanent cessations of fishing activities

9.1. An additional number of days at sea on which a vessel may be authorized by its flag Member State to be present within the geographical area when carrying on board any of the gears referred to in point 3 may be allocated to Member States by the Commission on the basis of permanent cessations of fishing activities that have taken place since 1 January 2004 either in accordance with Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 2792/1999 or resulting from other circumstances duly motivated by Member States. The effort expended in 2003 measured in kilowatt days of the withdrawn vessels using the gear in question shall be divided by the effort expended by all vessels using that gear during 2003. The additional number of days at sea shall be then calculated by multiplying the ratio so obtained by the number of days that would have been allocated according to Table I. Any part of a day resulting from this calculation shall be rounded to the nearest whole day. This point shall not apply where a vessel has been replaced in accordance with point 4.2 or when the withdrawal has already been used in previous years to obtain additional days at sea.

9.2. Member States wishing to benefit from the allocations referred to in point 9.1 shall submit a request to the Commission with reports in electronic format containing for each grouping of fishing gears the details of the calculation based on — lists of withdrawn vessels with their Community Fleet Register number (CFR) and their engine power;

— the fishing activity deployed by such vessels in 2003 calculated in days at sea by concerned grouping of fishing gears.

9.3. On the basis of such a request the Commission may amend the number of days defined in point 7.2 for that Member State in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 30(2) of Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002.

9.4. During the 2008 management period, a Member State may re-allocate those additional numbers of days at sea to all the vessels remaining in fleet and qualified for the relevant grouping of fishing gears or to part of them by applying, mutatis mutandis, the provisions laid down in points 7.3 and 7.4.

9.5. Any additional number of days resulting from a permanent cessation of activity previously allocated by the Commission remains allocated in 2008.