30.4.2004 Official Journal of the European Union L 163/65 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 911/2004 of 29 April 2004 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards eartags, passports and holding registers (Text with EEA relevance) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000 of the Euro- pean Parliament and of the Council of 17 July 2000 estab- lishing a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 820/97 (), and in particular Article 7(1) and Article 10 (a), (b) and (c) thereof, Whereas: 1 Commission Regulation (EC) No 2629/97 of 29 December 1997 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 820/97 as regards eartags, holding registers and passports in the framework of the system for the identification and regis- tration of bovine animals () has been substantially amended several times. For reasons of clarity and consis- tency of Community legislation those rules should be contained in a single act. Accordingly, Regulation (EC) No 2629/97 should be repealed and replaced by this Regulation. Ear tags should include information on the Member State of origin together with information on the indivi- dual animal. The most appropriate codified form of such information is the two-letter country code together with a maximum of 12 digits. Bar codes could be authorised in addition to the country code and the maximum 12 digits. It is appropriate to take account of the difficulties pointed out by the competent authority of certain Member States regarding the code for the identification of bovine animals and permit those authorities to use ear tags containing an alpha-numeric code until the end of a transitional period. In addition it is appropriate to take into account the difficulties pointed out by the competent authority of Italy and to permit that authority to use a maximum of three supplementary characters provided those supplementary characters do not form part of the numeric code. In order to avoid difficulties in intra-Community trade in bovine animals and to clarify the current rules, it is necessary to authorise keepers to acquire in advance, if (") OJ L 204, 11.8.2000, p. 1. Regulation as amended by the 2003 Act of Accession. () OJ L 354, 30.12.1997, p. 9. Regulation as last amended by the 2003 Act of Accession. (11) they so wish and in compliance with the national provi- sions, a quantity of ear tags proportionate to their needs for a period of no more than one year. It is appropriate to provide for the information contained in the replacement ear tags in the event of ear tag losses. It is appropriate to define certain minimum uniform rules for the design and layout of the ear tags. The provisions concerning the information content of the ear tags should be reviewed in the light of the estab- lishment of the computerised database provided for in Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000. The information contained in the passport and the register should be in a form which allows animals to be traced. The information should be consistent with that to be included in the computerised database provided for in Council Directive 64/432/EEC of 26 June 1964 on animal health problems affecting intra-Community trade in bovine animals and swine (). The period between three and seven days to be deter- mined by Member States for keepers to notify move- ments, births and deaths of animals should be linked to the date of the event. However, it is appropriate to take account of the difficulties pointed out by Member States for notification of births within the deadline foreseen, and consequently to allow Member States to determine the relevant period from the date when the animal is ear tagged. It is appropriate to take account of the difficulties pointed out by Member States regarding the information to be provided in the passports accompanying bovine animals born before 1 January 1998. The difficulties pointed out during the preparation of the Accession of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia for the passports accompanying animals born before 1 January 2004 should also be taken into account. () O] L 121, 29.7.1964, p. 1977/64. Directive as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 (OJ L 5, 9.1.2004, p. 8).