This Article shall apply to Member States concerned and, for the sole purposes of application of paragraph 4, to all other Member States.

Member States shall assess risks with regard to the stocks and area(s) covered, on the basis of the table set out in Annex I.

The risk assessment by each Member State shall consider, on the basis of past experience and using all available and relevant information, how likely a non-compliance is to happen and, if it were to happen, the potential consequence(s). By combining these elements, each Member State shall estimate a level of risk (‘very low’, ‘low’, ‘medium’, ‘high’ or ‘very high’) for each category for inspection referred to in Article 4(2).

In case where a fishing vessel flying the flag of a Member State which is not a Member State concerned, or a third country fishing vessel, operates in the area(s) referred to in Article 1, it shall be attributed a level of risk in accordance with paragraph 3. In the absence of information and unless its flag authorities provide, in the framework of Article 9, the results of their own risk assessment performed according to Article 4(2) and to paragraph 3 leading to a different risk level, it shall be considered as a ‘very high’ risk level fishing vessel.