L 58 Official Journal of the European Union 9.1.2004 COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 21/2004 of 17 December 2003 establishing a system for the identification and registration of ovine and caprine animals and amending Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and Directives 92/102/EEC and 64/432[EEC THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com- munity, and in particular Article 37 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (*), Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (), Whereas: (1) Pursuant to Article 3(1)(c) of Council Directive 90/425/ EEC of 26 June 1990 concerning veterinary and zootechnical checks applicable in intra-Community trade in certain live animals and products with a view to the completion of the internal market (), animals for intra- Community trade have to be identified in accordance with the requirements of Community rules and be regis- tered in such a way that the original or transit holding, centre or organisation can be traced. Those identification and registration systems had to be extended to the movements of animals within the territory of each Member State by 1 January 1993. (2)  Article 14 of Council Directive 91/496/EEC of 15 July 1991 laying down the principles governing the organisa- tion of veterinary checks on animals entering the Com- munity from third countries and amending Directives 89/662[EEC, 90/425/EEC and 90/675[EEC () states that the identification and registration provided for in Article 3(1)(c) of Directive 90/425/EEC must, except in the case of animals for slaughter and registered equidae, be carried out after the veterinary checks have been made. (3)  Rules concerning the identification and the registration of ovine and caprine animals in particular have been laid down in Directive 92/102/EEC (). In respect of ovine and caprine animals, experience, and in particular the (") Opinion delivered on 17 November 2003 (not yet published in the Official Journal). () O] C 208, 3.9.2003, p. 32. () OJ L 224, 18.8.1990, p. 29. Directive as last amended by Directive 2002/33[EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (O] L 315, 19.11.2002, p. 14). () OJ L 268, 24.9.1991, p. 56. Directive as last amended by Directive 96/43/EC (O] L 16, 22.1.1996, p. 3). () OJ L 355, 5.12.1992, p. 32. Directive as last amended by the 1994 Act of Accession. foot-and-mouth disease crisis, has shown that the imple- mentation of Directive 92/102/EEC has not been satis- factory and is in need of improvement. It is therefore necessary to lay down more stringent and specific rules, as has already been done for bovine animals with Regu- lation (EC) No 1760/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 July 2000 establishing a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals (). ) It follows from the structure of Community legislation, and in particular from Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000, that the concepts of keeper and holding as generally used do not refer to veterinary practices or clinics. The scope of those concepts should be defined more expli- citly so as to render the legislation more readable. (5)  Directive 92/102/EEC should therefore be amended so that it states clearly that bovine animals are already excluded from its scope and, likewise, to exclude ovine and caprine animals. (6)  Council Directive 64/432/EEC of 26 June 1964 on animal health problems affecting intra-Community trade in bovine animals and swine (') should also be amended in order to update the references therein to the provi- sions in Community legislation regarding the identifica- tion of the animal species concerned. (7)  In 1998 the Commission launched a large-scale project on the electronic identification of animals (IDEA), and its final report was completed on 30 April 2002. That project demonstrated that a substantial improvement in ovine and caprine animal identification systems could be achieved by using electronic identifiers for those animals, provided that certain conditions concerning the accom- panying measures were fulfilled. (8)  The technology for the electronic identification of ovine and caprine animals has been developed to the stage where it can be applied. Pending development of the implementing measures required for the proper intro- duction of the system of electronic identification Com- munity-wide, an efficient identification and registration system, enabling future developments in the field of implementation of electronic identification on a Com- munity-wide scale to be taken into account, should permit the individual identification of animals and their holding of birth. () OJ L 204, 11.8.2000, p. 1. () O] 121, 29.7.1964, p. 1977/64. Directive as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1226/2002 (O] L 179, 9.7.2002, p- 13).