2008/292/EC: Commission Decision of 4 April 2008 establishing that the Black Sea and the river systems connected to it do not constitute a natural habitat for European eel for the purposes of Council Regulation (EC) No 1100/2007 (notified under document number C(2008) 1217)
Date: 2008-04-04
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Black Sea, conservation of fish stocks, environmental protection, fish, fishery management, fishing controls, watercourse

L 98/14

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

10.4.2008

COMMISSION DECISION

of 4 April 2008

establishing that the Black Sea and the river systems connected to it do not constitute a natural
habitat for European eel for the purposes of Council Regulation (EC) No 1100/2007

(notified under document number C(2008) 1217)

(Only the Bulgarian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak and Slovene texts are
authentic)

(2008/292/EC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

(5)

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1100/2007 of
18 September 2007 establishing measures for the recovery of
the stock of European eel (1), and in particular Article 1(2)
thereof,

consulting the Scientific, Technical

After
Committee for Fisheries,

and Economic

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Regulation (EC) No 1100/2007 establishes a framework
for the protection and sustainable use of the stock of
in Community waters and in coastal
European eel
lagoons,
in estuaries, and in rivers and communicating
inland waters of Member States.

Member States are to identify and define the individual
river basins lying within their national
territory that
constitute natural habitats for the European eel. For
each eel river basin, Member States are to prepare an
Eel Management Plan.

Since European eel are found in the Black Sea and in
river systems connected to it in low numbers, it is not
certain whether or not those waters constitute a natural
habitat for that species.

Regulation (EC) No 1100/2007 empowers therefore the
Commission to decide whether the Black Sea and the
river systems connected to it constitute such a natural
habitat
recovery
measures.

implementation of

requiring

the

(1) OJ L 248, 22.9.2007, p. 17.

The Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for
the Black
Fisheries has advised the Commission that
Sea and the river systems connected to it are at the
extreme limit of the distribution of European eel and
that, before stocking occurred, the natural presence of
eel was
to stocking the density of
in those waters was too low to support
European eel
fisheries on any life stage of eel.

sporadic. Prior

and

It is unlikely that any significant number of eel stocked
into the rivers connected to the Black Sea could reach
spawning
maturity
migration to the Sargasso Sea. Additionally,
is
it
juvenile eel
unlikely that any significant number of
could recruit
into the rivers connected to the Black
Sea, attain maturity and escape to spawning grounds.

successfully

complete

the

Any potential benefit
to the stock of European eel
resulting from recovery measures in the Black Sea and
the river systems connected to it would be negligible and
thus disproportionately low compared to the administra-
tive and financial burden that would be laid upon the
Member States concerned.

It should therefore be established that the Black Sea and
the river systems connected to it do not constitute a
natural habitat
for the purposes of
Regulation (EC) No 1100/2007.

for European eel

The measures provided for
accordance with the opinion of
Fisheries and Aquaculture,

in this Decision are in
the Committee for

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

The Black Sea and the river systems connected to it do not
constitute a natural habitat for European eel for the purposes
of Regulation (EC) No 1100/2007.

10.4.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 98/15

This Decision is addressed to the Republic of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Federal Republic of
Germany, the Italian Republic, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Poland,
Romania, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic.

Article 2

Done at Brussels, 4 April 2008.

For the Commission

Joe BORG
Member of the Commission