Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistical surveys in order to determine the production potential of plantations of certain species of fruit trees
Date: 2000-11-23
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: arboriculture, fruit-growing, plantation, statistics

C 96 E/212

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

27.3.2001

Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistical
surveys in order to determine the production potential of plantations of certain species of fruit
trees

(2001/C 96 E/11)

COM(2000) 753 final (cid:151) 2000/0291(COD)

(Submitted by the Commission on 23 November 2000)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

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

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

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

(5) In accordance with the principles of

trees

subsidiarity and
proportionality referred to in Article 5 of the Treaty, the
objectives of obtaining complete and reliable statistics on
the production potential of plantations of certain species of
in the Community and on medium-term
fruit
estimates of production and supply on the markets
cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States
acting individually, for obvious reasons, and can therefore
be better achieved by the Community, and this Directive
does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve these
objectives.

Whereas:

(6) Directive 76/625/EEC should therefore be repealed.

the market

(1) The Commission, in order to perform the task conferred
upon it by the Treaty and by Community provisions
governing the common organisation of
in
fruit and vegetables, needs to be kept accurately informed
on the production potential of plantations of certain
species of fruit trees within the Community and to have
available medium-term estimates of production and supply
on the markets. This information is currently provided for
by Council Directive 76/625/EEC (1) concerning the stat-
istical surveys to be carried out by the Member States in
order to determine the production potential of plantations
of certain species of fruit trees, last amended by Directive
1999/87/EC of
the
Council (2). As this Directive has already been amended
on several previous occasions, it would be appropriate to
use the opportunity presented by the current changes to
repeal it and replace it by this new Directive.

the European Parliament and of

(2) It is therefore advisable to carry out surveys concurrently in
all the Member States on plantations of fruit trees of the
same species in accordance with the same criteria and with
comparable accuracy. New plantations attain their full yield
only after a certain number of years. These surveys should
therefore be repeated every five years in order to obtain
reliable statistics on production potential taking account of
the fruit trees which are not yet productive.

(3) Uniform surveys should be carried out in each Member
State on the main varieties of each species of fruit, endeav-
ouring at
to establish sub-divisions
according to variety which are as complete as necessary.

same

time

the

(7) As the measures required to implement this Directive are
management measures within the meaning of Article 2 of
Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying
down the procedures for the exercise of
implementing
powers conferred on the Commission (3), these measures
should be adopted by use of the management procedure
provided for by Article 4 of the Decision,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

1. Member States shall carry out on 1 January 2002, and in
every fifth year thereafter, surveys on plantations of certain
species of fruit trees existing on their territory.

2.

The following species shall be surveyed:

(a) Dessert apples

(b) Dessert pears

(c) Peaches

(d) Apricots

(e) Oranges

(f) Lemons

(4) The experience acquired in previous surveys of fruit tree
plantations has shown that this is necessary to introduce a
certain flexibility into survey methods used by the Member
States whilst maintaining the comparability of data between
Member States.

(g) Small-fruited citrus (mandarins,

including tangerines and
satsumas; clementines, wilkings and other similar hybrids
of citrus fruits).

The species to be surveyed in the various Member States are
stated in the appended table.

(1) OJ L 218, 11.8.1976, p. 10.
(2) OJ L 16, 21.1.2000, p. 72.

(3) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.

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The survey of plantations of varieties of apples and pears
destined solely for uses other than dessert apples and pears
shall be optional.

3. Member States shall take appropriate measures to limit
mistakes of reporting and, if necessary, to estimate their effect
on the whole of
the area planted with fruit trees of each
species.

The survey shall apply to all holdings with an area
3.
planted with fruit trees, provided that the fruit produced is
entirely or mainly intended for sale.

The survey shall cover pure and mixed crops, that is to say
plantations of fruit trees of several of the species referred to in
paragraph 2 or of one or more of them together with other
species.

4.
The survey may be either exhaustive or based on random
sampling, in accordance with the criteria listed in Article 3.

Article 2

1.
The surveys referred to in Article 1 shall be organised so
that the results may be presented in various combinations of
the following characteristics:

A. Variety of fruit:

fruit, and in order of

For each species of
importance,
enough varieties shall be shown to enable a separate
assessment to be made for each Member State, by variety,
of at least 80 % of the total area planted with fruit trees of
the species in question and, in any case, all varieties repre-
senting 3 % or more of the total area planted with fruit
trees of the species in question.

B. Age of trees:

Age of trees must be calculated from the time of their
planting in the orchard. The planting season extending
from the autumn to the spring shall be considered a
single period. When there has been double grafting, the
time when this was carried out shall be the determining
factor.

C. Net area planted, number of trees and density of plantation:

The density of plantation may be surveyed and quoted
directly or may be calculated from the net area planted.

Article 4

1. Member States shall notify the Commission of the results
of these surveys as rapidly as possible, and in any case before 1
October of the year following the survey year.

2.
The results referred to in paragraph 1 shall be supplied
for each production area. The boundaries of the production
areas to be adopted for Member States shall be fixed in
accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 8.

3.
Sampling errors together with any mistakes discovered in
reporting as referred to in Article 3 must be notified before 1
October of the year following the survey year.

4. Member States shall send the Commission a methodo-
logical report on how the survey was carried out no later
than 1 October of
in which the
survey was carried out.

the year following that

Article 5

Member States which have annual estimates:

(a) of areas of fruit trees the clearing of which has been carried

out on their territory, and

(b) of the new plantations of fruit trees on their territory,

shall notify the Commission of this information no later than
31 October of the year following the survey year.

Article 6

The Commission shall study the following in consultation and
ongoing cooperation with Member States:

(a) the results supplied,

(b) the technical problems raised,

in particular by the prep-
aration and implementation of these surveys and notifi-
cations,

(c) the significance of the findings of the surveys and notifi-

cations.

Detailed rules for applying this Article shall be adopted in

2.
accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 8.

Article 7

Article 3

1.
In the case of random sampling, the sample shall be
representative of at least 95 % of the area planted with fruit
trees. Estimates can be made for areas not covered by sampling.

So far as the results of the surveys carried out by random
2.
sampling are concerned, Member States
take every
measure to ensure that sampling errors at the 68 % confidence
level shall, at the most, be of the order of 3 % for the whole of
the national area planted with fruit trees of each species.

shall

The Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and
to the Council, within one year of notification of the results by
Member States, a report on experience acquired during the
survey.

Article 8

The Commission shall be assisted by the Standing
set up by Council

1.
Committee for Agricultural Statistics,
Decision 72/279/EEC (1).

(1) OJ L 179, 7.8.1972, p. 1.

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2. Where the provisions of this Article are to be followed,
in Article 4 of
the management procedure provided for
Decision 1999/468/EEC shall be applied,
taking account of
the provisions of Article 8 of that Decision.

The period provided for in Article 4(3) of Decision

3.
1999/468/EC shall be set at three months.

Article 9

Directive 76/625/EEC is hereby repealed.

Article 10

When Member States adopt these provisions, these provisions
shall contain a reference to this Directive or shall be accom-
panied by a reference to it when they are officially published.
The details of this reference shall be decided by the Member
States.

Article 11

This Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day
following its publication in the Official Journal of the European
Communities.

Member States shall bring into force the legislative, regulatory
and administrative provisions required to conform with this
Directive by [. . .] at
inform the
Commission of these provisions immediately.

the latest. They shall

Article 12

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

ANNEX

SPECIES SURVEYED IN THE VARIOUS MEMBER STATES

Apples

Pears

Peaches

Apricots

Oranges

Lemons

Small-fruited
citrus

Belgium

Denmark

Germany

Greece

Spain

France

Ireland

Italy

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Austria

Portugal

Finland

Sweden

United Kingdom

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