7.11.2003 Official Journal of the European Union L 289/1 (Acts whose publication is obligatory) COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1954/2003 of 4 November 2003 on the management of the fishing effort relating to certain Community fishing areas and resources and modifying Regulation (EC) No 2847/93 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 685/95 and (EC) No 2027/95 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com- munity, and in particular Articles 37 and 299(2) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (%), Whereas: 1 Article 4 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2371/2002 of 20 December 2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy () provides that the Council shall estab- lish Community measures governing access to waters and resources and the sustainable pursuit of fishing activities. The regime of access to certain areas and resources defined in the Articles 156 to 166 and Articles 347 to 353 of the Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal has expired on 31 December 2002. Consequently, certain provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No 685/95 of 27 March 1995, on the management of the fishing effort relating to certain Community fishing areas and resources (), and Council Regulation (EC) No 2027/95 of 15 June 1995, establishing a system for the manage- ment of fishing effort relating to certain Community fishing areas and resources () need to be adapted to the new legal situation. Other provisions laid down in Regulations (EC) No 685/ 95 and (EC) No 2027/95 are designed to establish a general system for the management of fishing effort in order to prevent an increase in fishing effort and are not related to the Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal. Those provisions are important for fisheries manage- ment and should be maintained. (") Proposal of 17 December 2002 (not yet published in the Official (4) Journal). (*) Opinion of 4 June 2002 (not yet published in the Official Journal). () OJL 358, 31.12.2002, p. 59. () OJL 71, 31.3.1995, p. 5. C) 3 ) O L 199, 24.8.1995, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC) No 149/1999 (O] L 18, 23.1.1999, p. 3). In order to ensure that there is no increase in the overall levels of existing fishing effort, it is necessary to establish a new fishing effort management regime in ICES areas V, VI, VII, VIII, IX and X and CECAF divisions 34.1.1, 34.1.2 and 34.2.0. This regime shall limit fishing effort on the basis of the fishing effort deployed in these fish- eries during the period 1998 to 2002. In order to ensure consistency between different fishing effort management rules, the general fishing effort limitation provided for in this Regulation should be reviewed whenever the Council adopts fishing effort management rules for fisheries in the same area or part of it, as part of a recovery plan. A review of the imple- mentation of the present scheme by December 2006 would also allow the Council to reassess the situation. It is necessary for the protection of the sensitive biolo- gical situation of the waters around the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands and the preservation of the local economy of these islands, having regard to their struc- tural, social and economic situation, to limit certain fishing activities in those waters to vessels registered in the ports of these islands. A review of these measures by December 2006 would allow the Council to reassess the situation. An area to the South and West of Ireland has been iden- tified as an area of high concentration of juvenile hake. This area has been made subject to special restrictions on the use of demersal gear. For the same conservation purpose it should also be subject to specific effort limita- tion requirements within the general system described above. A review of these requirements by December 2008 would allow the Council to reassess the situation. It is the responsibility of flag Member States to adopt measures to regulate fishing effort; as a result, it is neces- sary to ensure transparency and equity of management and monitoring procedures.