Member States shall communicate to the Commission not later than 31 December 2008 Eel Management Plans prepared in accordance with Article 2.

A Member State which has not submitted an Eel Management Plan to the Commission for approval by 31 December 2008 shall either reduce fishing effort by at least 50 % relative to the average effort deployed from 2004 to 2006 or reduce fishing effort to ensure a reduction in eel catches by at least 50 % relative to the average catch from 2004 to 2006, either by shortening the fishing season for eel or by other means. This reduction shall be implemented from 1 January 2009.

The reduction in catches set out in paragraph 2 may be substituted in whole or in part by immediate measures concerning other anthropogenic mortality factors, which will allow a number of migrating silver eels equivalent to that which the reduction of catches would allow to escape to the sea to spawn.