COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251(2) of the EC-Treaty concerning the Council's common position on the proposal for a Decision of the Council and of the European Parliament on the application of aerial-survey and remote-sensing techniques to the agricultural statistics for 1999-2003

1998/0296 (COD)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251(2) of the EC-Treaty concerning the Council's common position on the proposal for a Decision of the Council and of the European Parliament on the application of aerial-survey and remote-sensing techniques to the agricultural statistics for 1999-2003

1. Background

1.1. On 13 November 1998, the Commission submitted to the Council a proposal for a Decision, based on the former Article 43 of the EEC Treaty, on the application of aerial-survey and remote-sensing techniques to the agricultural statistics for 1999-2003 [1].

[1] COM(1998)601 final of 11.11.1998.

1.2. The European Parliament, consulted in accordance with the legal basis proposed by the Commission, approved the proposal on 13 January 1999 without proposing any amendments.

1.3. As a result of the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty, the Council took the view that the proposal for a Decision was now governed by the legal basis of the new Article 285 of the EC Treaty, which provides that the Council, acting in accordance with the codecision procedure, is to adopt measures for the production of statistics where necessary for the performance of the activities of the Community.

1.4. On 16 September 1999, in its first reading under the codecision procedure, the European Parliament confirmed the text of the proposal on which it had voted on 13 January 1999.

1.5. At its meeting on 24 January 2000, the Council adopted its common position in accordance with Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty.

2. Purpose of the Commission's proposal

The purpose of the Commission's proposal for a Decision is to reorganise and continue, for the period 1999-2003, the measures using aerial-survey and remote-sensing techniques.

This reorganisation centres on three main areas:

- introduction of a Europe-wide ground survey system (aerial surveys) of the type already implemented under the MARS project (point survey of a representative sample)

- a move from the experimental phase to the operational phase in the case of the agro-meteorological system,

- provisional suspension of activities linked to estimating crop areas by remote sensing, since research work on alternative methods is currently being carried out. However, these activities could be started up again without the need for prior amendment of the Decision.

3. Comments on the Council's common position

3.1. In its common position, the Council endorses the Commission's proposal subject to two types of amendment being made:

(1) drafting amendments: the wording of the recitals and the enacting terms has been adjusted to make them clearer, take account of the data collected at national level, enable the aerial survey project to be discontinued after a three-year period, and make it clearer that the Member States' participation is totally voluntary.

(2) more fundamental amendments:

- introduction of a new Article (Article 3) providing for an indication of the financial allocation for implementing the programme over the period 1999-2003,

- introduction of a management committee instead of an advisory committee as proposed by the Commission for carrying out the implementing measures.

3.2. As regards the drafting amendments, the Commission takes the view that they do not substantially alter its proposal. It can therefore accept them.

3.3. As regards inclusion of a financial allocation in the text of the Decision, the Commission takes the view that this is in accordance with the Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission of 6 May 1999 on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure (1999/C 172/01).

3.4. Finally, as regards the choice of procedures for adopting implementing measures, the Commission shares the Council's view based on the criterion in Article 2(a) of Council Decision 1999/468/EC [2]. The Commission thinks that, since agricultural statistics are closely linked to implementation of the common agricultural policy and the management-committee procedure is the procedure laid down for putting that policy into practice, it is quite logical for the same approach to apply to agricultural statistics.

[2] OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.

4. Conclusion

In view of the above considerations, the Commission endorses the common position adopted by the Council.