Introductory text

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of 11 December 2013 on the Common Fisheries Policy, amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1954/2003 and (EC) No 1224/2009 and repealing Council Regulations (EC) No 2371/2002 and (EC) No 639/2004 and Council Decision 2004/585/EC^f1, and in particular Article 24(4) thereof,

Whereas:

Commission Regulation (EC) No 26/2004^f2 lays down, inter alia, the obligations of Member States regarding the transmission of data on vessel characteristics and activity from their national registers to the Commission.

In order to ensure accurate and efficient information transfer of those fleet data, it is appropriate to update Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 26/2004 as regards the country codes, the codes for fishing gear and the fleet segmentation codes to be used for the transmission of such data.

It is necessary to provide for a table of the country codes in order to facilitate the transmission of data pursuant to Articles 6 and 8 of the Regulation (EC) No 26/2004.

Following accession of Croatia, it is necessary to update Table 3 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 26/2004 concerning the codes for fishing gear by inserting a code for ‘harpoon’, which is used in the Croatian fleet as main or second gear.

Table 5 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 26/2004 should be updated by inserting certain fleet segment codes for outermost regions since Commission Regulation (EC) No 2104/2004^f3, which provided for those codes, has exhausted its effects following the repeal of Council Regulation (EC) No 639/2004^f4. For the sake of clarity, it is also appropriate to add new fleet segmentation codes for Mayotte.

Regulation (EC) No 26/2004 should therefore be amended accordingly.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee for Fisheries and Aquaculture,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: