[pic] | COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES |

Brussels, 21.4.2008

COM(2008)210 final

2008/0079 (COD)

Proposal for a

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

concerning crop statistics

(presented by the Commission)

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL |

120 | Grounds for and objectives of the proposal Statistics on crops are essential for management of the EU markets. It is also considered essential that vegetable and permanent crop statistics be covered in addition to statistics on cereals and remaining crops from arable land currently governed by legislation. General context This proposal is in line with the objectives of better legislation, simplification, and reduction of the burden on respondents. |

Existing provisions This proposal is designed to simplify the current provisions and adapt them to the new needs of the European Union. The existing legislation, Council Regulation (EEC) No 837/90 of 26 March 1990 concerning statistical information to be supplied by the Member States on cereals production and Council Regulation (EEC) No 959/93 of 5 April 1993 concerning statistical information to be supplied by Member States on crop products other than cereals, should therefore be repealed. |

Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union The statistics to which this proposal relates are essential for management and evaluation of the common agricultural policy. The proposed Regulation ties in with the Commission's new political approach to the simplification of legislation and better regulation as referred to in the Communication of 14 November 2006 on "a strategic review of Better Regulation in the European Union"[1] and the Communication of 24 January 2007 on an "action programme for reducing administrative burdens in the European Union"[2]. |

CONSULTATION OF INTERESTED PARTIES AND IMPACT ASSESSMENT |

Consultation of interested parties |

Consultation methods, main sectors targeted and general profile of respondents The proposal has been discussed with data producers (representatives of the National Statistical Institutes) and Commission services (DG AGRI, JRC) through Working Groups and the Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics (SCAS). |

Summary of responses and how they have been taken into account This proposal is the result of in-depth negotiations between all interested parties. |

Collection and use of expertise |

Expertise concerned The national representatives in the meetings of DG Eurostat's Working Group "Land use and Crop Statistics" were experts with knowledge of the existing legislation and the national systems for collecting and compiling crop product statistics. The Commission officials included experts on policy analysis. |

Main organisations/experts consulted The experts were from the National Statistical Institutes, DG AGRI and JRC. The Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics and its Working Group "Land use and Crop Statistics" were heavily involved and consulted. |

Summary of advice received and used A very positive and supportive response was noted. The existence of potentially serious risks with irreversible consequences was not mentioned. |

Since this proposal represents a major simplification of the existing legislation, no risks were identified. |

Means used to make the expert advice publicly available The working documents and minutes of the meetings of the SCAS and the working group are available through CIRCA. |

LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL |

Summary of the proposed action The objective of this Regulation is the provision by the Member States of statistics on land use and crop products. Legal basis Article 285 of the Treaty establishing the European Community provides the legal basis for Community statistics. The Council, acting in accordance with the codecision procedure, adopts measures for the production of statistics where necessary for the performance of the activities of the Community. This Article sets out the requirements relating to the production of Community statistics, stating that they must conform to standards of impartiality, reliability, objectivity, scientific independence, cost-effectiveness and statistical confidentiality. |

Subsidiarity principle |

The objectives of this proposal, namely the establishment of a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on land use and crop products, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States. They can be better achieved at Community level on the basis of a Community legal act, because only the Commission can coordinate the necessary harmonisation of statistical information at Community level, whereas the collection of data and compilation of comparable statistics on land use and crop products can be organised by the Member States. The Community may therefore take action to this end in accordance with the principle of subsidiary as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. |

Proportionality principle The proposal complies with the proportionality principle for the following reasons: In accordance with the principle of proportionality, this Regulation confines itself to the minimum required to achieve its objective and does not go beyond what is necessary for that purpose. This Regulation does not specify the data collection mechanisms for each Member State, but merely defines the data to be supplied so as to ensure a harmonised structure and timing. There is no obligation for the Member States to make any changes to the production of statistics on land use and crop products, currently governed by Council Regulations (EEC) No 837/90 and (EEC) No 959/93. The only new items proposed in this Regulation are vegetables and permanent crops, for which data are already being collected at EU level under gentlemen’s agreements. |

The requirement for statistics instead of survey results, the reduced frequency of data submission in some instances and the possibility to make greater use of sources other than surveys (e.g. administrative sources) should reduce the financial and administrative burden on national authorities. |

Choice of instruments |

Proposed instrument: Regulation. Other means would not be adequate for the following reasons: Selection of the appropriate instrument depends on the legislative goal. Given the information needs at European level, the trend for Community statistics has been to use regulations rather than directives for basic acts. A regulation is preferable because it lays down the same law throughout the Community, leaving the Member States with no leeway to apply it incompletely or selectively. It is directly applicable, which means that it does not need to be transposed into national law. In contrast, directives, which aim to harmonise national laws, are binding on Member States as regards their objectives, but leave it to the national authorities to choose the methods of achieving these objectives. They also have to be transposed into national law. The use of a regulation is in line with other statistical legal acts adopted since 1997. |

BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS |

The proposal has no implications for the Community budget. |

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION |

Simplification |

The proposal provides for the simplification of legislation, the simplification of administrative procedures for public authorities (EU or national), and the simplification of administrative procedures for private parties. |

The reduced breakdown of data by regions, the exemptions granted to Member States with crop areas under certain thresholds, and the harmonised transmission deadlines will simplify the work for EU and national administrations. |

The use of administrative sources instead of surveys will reduce the burden on respondents. |

The proposal is included in the Commission's Work and Legislative Programme under the reference 2007/ESTAT/029. |

Repeal of existing legislation The adoption of the proposal will lead to the repeal of existing legislation. |

European Economic Area The proposed act concerns an EEA matter and should therefore extend to the European Economic Area. |

1. 2008/0079 (COD)

Proposal for a

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

concerning crop statistics

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285(1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission[3],

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament[4],

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty[5],

Whereas:

2. Council Regulation (EEC) No 837/90 of 26 March 1990 concerning statistical information to be supplied by the Member States on cereals production[6] and Council Regulation (EEC) No 959/93 of 5 April 1993 concerning statistical information to be supplied by Member States on crop products other than cereals[7] have been amended several times. Since further amendments and simplifications are now necessary, these acts should, for reasons of clarity, be replaced.

3. Statistics on crops are essential for management of the EU markets. It is also considered essential that vegetable and permanent crop statistics be covered in addition to statistics on cereals and remaining crops from arable land currently governed by legislation.

4. In order to ensure that the common agricultural policy is properly administered, the Commission requires that data on areas, yields and production of crops is regulary provided.

5. Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 of 29 February 1988 on the organisation of Community surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings[8] provides for a programme of Community surveys to provide statistics on the structure of agricultural holdings up to 2007.

6. In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS)[9], all Member States’ statistics transmitted to the Commission which are broken down by territorial units should use the NUTS classification. Consequently, in order to establish comparable regional statistics, the territorial units should be defined in accordance with the NUTS classification.

7. In order to limit the burden on Member States, the regional data requirements should not exceed the requirements under previous legislation (unless new regional levels have appeared in the meantime).

8. In order to facilitate the implementation of this Regulation, close cooperation is necessary between the Member States and the Commission, in particular via the Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics set up by Council Decision 72/279/EEC[10].

9. In order to ensure a smooth transition from the regime applicable under Council Regulations (EEC) No 837/90 and (EEC) No 959/93, this Regulation should allow for a transitional period of up to one year, to be granted to Member States where the application of this Regulation to their national statistical systems would require major adaptations and would be likely to cause significant practical problems.

10. Since the objective of the proposed action, namely the establishment of a common legal framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on areas under cultivation, yields and production of cereals and crops other than cereals in Member States, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may take action in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in the same Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve its objective.

11. Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community statistics[11] provides a reference framework for the provisions of this Regulation. In particular, it requires conformity to standards of impartiality, reliability, objectivity, scientific independence, cost-effectiveness and statistical confidentiality.

12. The measures necessary for implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission[12].

13. In particular, powers should be conferred on the Commission to adapt the transmission tables Since such measures are of general scope and are intended to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation or to supplement it by adding new non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.

14. The Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics has been consulted,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation establishes a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on land use and crop production.

Article 2

Definitions

1. For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

a) 'harvest year' is the calendar year in which the harvest begins;

b) 'utilised agricultural area' is the area as defined in Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88.

2. Definitions set out in Annex I to this Regulation shall only apply for the purpose of the Annex II to this Regulation.

Article 3

Coverage

1. Member States shall produce statistics on the crops listed in the Annex II produced on the utilised agricultural area within their territory.

2. Statistics shall be representative of at least 95% of the following areas (as indicated in the Annex II):

a) area under cultivation of crops from arable land (Table 1);

b) harvested area of vegetables, melons and strawberries (Table 2);

c) production area of permanent crops (Table 3);

d) utilised agricultural area (Table 4).

3. Variables with a low or zero prevalence in a Member State may be excluded from the statistics, provided the Member State informs the Commission of all such crops in the calendar year immediately preceding each of the reference periods.

Article 4

Frequency and reference period

Member States shall provide annually to the Commission the data referred to in Annex II. The reference period shall be the harvest year. The first reference year shall be 2010.

Article 5

Precision

Member States conducting sample surveys shall take the necessary steps to ensure that table 1 data meet the precision requirements set out in Annex II to this Regulation.

In regard to sources other than surveys, Member States shall ensure this information is of at least equal quality to that of information obtained from statistical surveys.

Article 6

Transmission to the Commission

Member States shall transmit to the Commission (Eurostat) the data set out in Annex II within the time limits specified for each table.

The transmission tables as set out in the Annex II may be adapted by the Commission (with the exception of the precision requirements). Measures designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 9(3).

Article 7

Regional statistics

15. The data marked with "R" in Annex II shall be provided by the NUTS 1 and NUTS 2 territorial units defined in Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003. By exception, they may be provided by NUTS 1 territorial units only for Germany and the United Kingdom.

16. Variables with a low or zero prevalence may be excluded from the regional statistics, provided the Member State informs the Commission of all such crops in the calendar year immediately preceding each of the reference periods.

Article 8

Quality assessment and report

17. For the purpose of this Regulation, the following quality assessment dimensions shall apply to the data to be transmitted:

18. 'relevance' refers to the degree to which statistics meet current and potential needs of users;

19. 'accuracy' refers to the closeness of estimates to the unknown true values;

20. 'timeliness' refers to the time lag between the availability of the information and the event or phenomenon it describes;

21. 'punctuality' refers to the time lag between the date of release of the data and the target date when it should have been delivered;

22. 'accessibility' and 'clarity' refer to the conditions and modalities by which users can obtain, use and interpret data;

23. 'comparability' refers to the measurement of the impact of differences in applied statistical concepts and measurement tools and procedures when statistics are compared between geographical areas, sectoral domains or over time;

24. 'coherence' refers to the adequacy of the data to be reliably combined in different ways and for various uses.

25. Every three years, and for the first time eighteen months after the date of application of this Regulation , Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with a report on the quality of the data transmitted .

26. Member States shall inform the Commission of any methodological or other change which would considerably influence the quality of the statistics, not later than three months after this change is effected.

27. If sources other than surveys are used, Member States shall inform the Commission in advance about methods used and data quality.

28. The Commission (Eurostat) shall assess the quality of the data transmitted.

Article 9

Committee procedure

1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics established by Council Decision 72/279/EEC.

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 4 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to Article 8 thereof.

The period laid down in Article 4(3) of that Decision shall be set at three months.

3. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5a (1) to (4) and Article 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof.

Article 10

Transitional period

1. Full calendar year transitional periods for implementation of this Regulation ending no later than one year after the date from which it applies may be granted to Member States, in so far as the application of this Regulation to their national statistical systems require s major adaptations and is likely to cause significant practical problems, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 9(2).

2. To this end, a Member State shall present a duly justified request to the Commission not later than three months after the entry into force of this Regulation.

Article 11

Repeal

1. Without prejudice to paragraph 3, Council Regulations (EEC) No 837/90 and (EEC) No 959/93 are hereby repealed as from 1 January 2010.

2. References made to the repealed Regulations shall be construed as being made to this Regulation.

3. By way of derogation from Article 12 (2), a Member State having been granted a derogation in accordance with Article 10 shall continue to apply the provisions of Council Regulations (EEC) No 837/90 and (EEC) No 959/93 for the duration of the transitional period granted.

Article 12

Entry into force

1. This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

2. It shall apply from 1 January 2010.

3. This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels,

For the European Parliament For the Council

The President The President

ANNEX I

DEFINITIONS

For the purposes of the Annex II of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

.A) Tables 1, 2 and 3 of Annex II

- 'area under cultivation': until the harvest, the area under cultivation corresponds to sown area excluding ruined area; after the harvest, the area under cultivation corresponds to the harvested area;

- 'harvested area' corresponds to the part of the developed area that is harvested. It can, therefore, be equal to or less than the developed area;

- 'production area" for the purposes of permanent crops refers to the area that potentially can be harvested in the reference harvest year. It excludes all the non-producing areas, such as new plantations that have not yet started to produce;

- 'harvested production' includes on-holding losses and wastage, quantities consumed directly on the farm and marketed quantities, indicated in units of basic product weight. The harvested production for cereals, dried pulses and protein crops, and oil plants (rape, sunflower, linseed, soya, cotton seed and other oil seeds) will be provided in dry equivalent;

- 'yield' corresponds to the harvested production per area under cultivation;

- 'successive cropping' refers to a parcel of arable land that is used more than once during a given crop year and the area each time has only one crop. Both areas shall be considered as area under cultivation for each crop (the concepts of main and secondary areas are not applicable in this context);

- 'combined cropping' applies to a combination of crops that occupy a parcel of agricultural area at the same time. The area under cultivation in this case is distributed between the crop products proportionately to the area of ground they occupy (the concepts of main and secondary areas are not applicable in this context);

- 'dual-purpose crops' are by convention considered for their primary use and as secondary crops for their supplementary use.

- 'crops under glass or high (accessible) cover' refers to crops which, for the whole of their period of growth or for the predominant part of it, are covered by greenhouses or fixed or mobile high cover (glass or rigid or flexible plastic). This excludes sheets of plastic laid flat on the ground, as well as land under cloches or tunnels not accessible to man or movable glass-covered frames. Areas of crops which are grown temporarily under glass and temporarily in the open air are reported as entirely under glass, unless the period under glass is of extremely limited duration.

B) Table 4 of Annex II

- Items are defined in Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88.

- "Main and secondary areas" are classified as follows:

- General use: The main area of a given parcel is, in the general case, where the parcel has only one occupation during a crop year, unequivocally defined by that occupation. (In this case the secondary area of that parcel will be zero).

- Special cases

- Successive cropping

'Main area': If the parcel of arable land is used more than once during a given crop year (successive cropping), and the area each time has only one crop, then the main area is the crop with the highest value. If the value of the production does not determine which is the main crop, then the main crop is taken as the one which occupies the ground for the longest period of time.

'Secondary area': All other occupations are then regarded as secondary areas.

29. Combined cropping

'Main area': If the parcel of arable land is used throughout the growing season of a given crop year for the same fixed combination of crops (combined cropping), then the main area is split pro rata between the crops concerned.

'Secondary area': In this case there will be no secondary area.

30. Combination of successive and combined cropping

'Main area': If the parcel of arable land is used more than once during a given crop year and with a combination of successive and combined crops, then each combination of crops occupying the land during the same period of time is valued separately, and the combination or the single crop with the highest value is taken as the main area. Where that area is used for combined cropping, the main area is split pro rata between the crops concerned.

'Secondary area': All other occupations are then regarded as secondary areas.

ANNEX II

TRANSMISSION TABLES

X: data to be provided at national level

R: data to be provided at regional and national level

- : data not to be provided

n.e.c.: not elsewhere classified

[pic]

[pic]

[pic]

[pic]

[1] Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions COM(2006) 689 final: "A strategic review of Better Regulation in the European Union".

[2] Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions COM(2007) 23 final: "Action Programme for Reducing Administrative Burdens in the European Union".

[3] OJ C […], […], p. […].

[4] OJ C […], […], p. […].

[5] OJ C […], […], p. […].

[6] OJ L 88, 3.4.1990, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1791/2006 (OJ L 363, 20.12.2006, p. 1).

[7] OJ L 98, 24.4.1993, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1791/2006 (OJ L 363, 20.12.2006, p. 1).

[8] OJ L 56, 2.3.1988, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1890/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 386, 29.12.2006, p. 12).

[9] OJ L 154, 21.6.2003, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 176/2008 (JO L 61, 5.3.2008, p.1).

[10] OJ L 179, 7.8.1972, p. 1.

[11] OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, p.1. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 (OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p.1).

[12] OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23. Decision as amended by Decision 2006/512/EC (OJ L 200, 22.7.2006, p. 1).