Report from the Commission to the Council on the implementation of the Eurofarm project (In accordance with article 13 of Council Regulation (EEC) no 571/88)
Date: 2005-12-19
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: agricultural holding, agricultural statistics, database, economic survey, policy on agricultural structures

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 19.12.2005 
COM(2005)665 final 

. 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL 

on the implementation of the Eurofarm project  
(in accordance with Article 13 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88) 

. 

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INTRODUCTION 

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  571/881  on  the  organisation  of  Community  surveys  on  the 
structure  of  agricultural  holdings  defines  the  Eurofarm  project  as  a  "set  of  data  banks  to  be 
used  for  processing  Community  surveys  on  the  structure  of  agricultural  holdings  for  the 
requirements of national and Community agricultural policies". 

Article 13 of the Regulation states that every three years the Commission shall submit to the 
Council  a  report  on  the  operation  of  the  Eurofarm  project  and  shall  propose  any  necessary 
changes to the Regulation. 

The  last  report  on  the  implementation  of  the  Eurofarm  project  was  adopted  by  the 
Commission  on  24  February  20032  and  considered  by  the  Council's  Special  Committee  on 
Agriculture on 31 March 2003. 

This  report  covers  the  period  2003  to  2005  and  provides  information,  in  particular,  on  the 
execution  of  the  2003  survey,  on  the  preparatory  work  for  the  2005  survey  and  on  the 
functioning of the Eurofarm software system. 

2003 SURVEY 

With  a  view  to  the  2003  survey,  the  following  legal  acts  were  adopted  by  the  committee 
procedure laid down in Article 15 of the Basic Regulation: 

– 

– 

– 

Commission Regulation (EC) No 143/20023 laid down the list of characteristics to be 
surveyed in the 2003 survey; 

Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1444/20024  contained  the  definitions  of  the 
characteristics to be surveyed; 

Commission Regulation (EC) No 68/20035 set the time limits for transmission of the 
2003  survey  data  to  Eurostat  and  authorised  Member  States  to  use  data  from 
administrative sources for certain characteristics. 

All  EU-15  Member  States,  the  10  new  Member  States  as  well  as  Bulgaria,  Romania  and 
Norway conducted a survey based on the EU standards and sent the results to Eurostat. These 
results were validated and approved by the following dates: 

1 

2 
3 

4 

5 

Council Regulation (EEC)No571/88 of 29 February 1988 published in OJ L 56 of 2 March 1998, p. 1 
et  seq.,as  last  amended  by  Regulation  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  (EC) 
No1435/2004 of 22 June 2004, published in OJ L 268 of 16 August 2004, p. 1 et seq. 
COM(2003)86 final. 
Commission  Regulation  (EC)  N°143/2002  of  24  January  2002  published  in  OJ  L  24  of  26  January 
2002, p. 16 et seq. 
Commission Regulation (EC)No 1444/2002 of 24 July 2002 published in OJ L 216 of 12 August 2002, 
p. 1 et seq. 
Commission Regulation (EC)No 68/2003 of 16 January 2003 published in OJ L 12 of 17 January 2003, 
p. 5 et seq. 

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Country 

Due date 

31 Aug 04 

31 Aug 04 
31 Dec 04 

31 Dec 04 
31 Dec 04 
31 Dec 04 
31 Aug 04 
31 Dec 04 

31 Aug 04 

31 Aug 04 
31 Dec 04 

31 Dec 04 

31 Aug 04 
31 Aug 04 
31 Aug 04 

BE 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IE 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
BG 
RO 
NO 

Delay6 

-48 

10 
60 

129 
48 
-11 
1 
34 

-134 

90 
140 

144 

-6 
2 
7 

Date of 
approval 

14 Jul 04 
6 Apr 05 
10 Sep 04 
01 Mar 05 
11 Feb 05 
09 May 05 
17 Feb 05 
20 Dec 04 
1 Sep 04 
3 Feb 05 
19 May 05 
15 Sep 04 
4 Feb 04 
19 Apr 04 
5 Aug 04 
21 Jun 04 
29 Nov 04 
20 May 05 
16 Mar 05 
24 May 05 
30 Apr 04 
15 Feb 05 
25 Aug 04 
2 Sep 04 
7 Sep 04 
16 Sep 05 
26 Apr 05 
23 Jun 05 

The  fact  that  by  the  end  of  June  2005  data  from  27  countries  had  been  validated  and  the 
results  were  publicly  available  in  Eurostat’s  dissemination  database  constitutes  a  major 
improvement compared with the situation in the past.  

The previous Eurofarm report contained a detailed analysis of the delay between the date of 
delivery of the first version for the 1999/2000 survey and the acceptance of the final version. 
It reported an average delay of 253 days for the 15 Member States. For the 2003 survey the 
average delay for 27 countries was 112 days. 

To  a  large  extent,  this  improvement  is  due  to  the  Eurofarm  system  which  was  brought  into 
operation by 2002. 

First results were published a few days after approval of the survey data. 

A set of 78 tables covering the main aspects of the Farm Structure Survey was made available 
on Eurostat’s public website. 

6 

Delay  is  calculated  here  as  the  number  of  days  between  the  due  date  and  the  date  of  approval.  A 
negative delay indicates that the data were approved before the official due date. 

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In addition to this online publication an 8-page leaflet was published for each country. 

A  document  entitled  “Main  results  of  the  farm  structure  survey  2003”  containing 
comprehensive EU tables was due to be published in autumn 2005. 

A number of ad hoc tables were calculated at the request of DG Agriculture and other DGs or 
for consultants on contracts with Commission departments. 

2005 SURVEY 

Two legal acts were adopted in order to prepare the 2005 survey: 

– 

– 

Commission Regulation (EC) No 2139/20047 contained the list of characteristics for 
the  2005  survey.  It  also  contained  the  definitions  of  those  characteristics  not 
previously surveyed and set the time limits for transmission of the data to Eurostat; 

Commission  Decision  2005/124/EC8  authorised  Member  States  to  use  data  from 
administrative sources for certain characteristics. 

Based on these legal acts, the Eurofarm database was prepared for processing the 2005 data. 
The  Data  Supplier  Manual,  which  describes  the  technical  format  in  which  data  have  to  be 
transmitted to Eurostat, was submitted to the Working Group on Structure and Typology of 
Agricultural Holdings in June 2005. 

EUROFARM SOFTWARE 

The  Eurofarm  database  contains  individual  farm  data  for  a  large  and  ever-growing  set  of 
countries from 1990 onwards and provides a unique source of information for the agricultural 
sector (see Annex). 

A UNIX/Oracle-based application is used for processing the data from the different surveys. 

The  richness  of  the  data  together  with  the  functionality  of  the  software  make  the  Eurofarm 
database a unique source of information about the agricultural sector in Europe. 

At the beginning of the reporting period, the task of developing this software and bringing it 
into operation was completed. 

Since  then  the  system  has  been  available  without  major  interruptions  and  the  expectations 
placed in its development have essentially been met. 

During  this  period  of  CAP  reform  and  EU  enlargement,  the  flexible  system  to  define  and 
calculate  statistical  tables  has  made  it  possible  to  meet  the  requirements  of  Commission 

7 

8 

Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No2139/2004  of  8  December  2004  published  in  OJ  L  369  of  16 
December 2004, p. 26 et seq. 
Commission Decision 2005/124/EC of 10 February 2005 published in OJ L 39 of 11 February 2005, 
p. 55 et seq. 

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departments for ad hoc analysis, while the metadata-driven approach allowed easy adaptation 
for a new survey and the addition of new countries. 

Although the functionality is regarded as satisfactory, the large volume of data and the strong 
demand for statistical  tables pose a permanent challenge  to  improve the  performance  of the 
system. 

The  dynamics  of  the  software  market,  with  system  software  providers  regularly  deciding  to 
phase out “old”versions of their products and forcing users to switch to new versions, call for 
continuous  migration  efforts.  In  2003  the  migration  of  the  Oracle  database  software  (to  the 
new version 9) was completed. 

As announced in the previous report, web-based access to the Eurofarm tabulation system has 
been  developed  and  tested.  This  system  is  currently  being  installed  in  the  Commission’s 
computer centre. 

The previous report to the Council mentioned the project to give the data providers access to 
the Eurofarm validation system. The program to provide this functionality has been developed 
and installed in a test environment. As this program gives access to confidential data referring 
to individual farms further clarifications are needed before it can be brought into operation. 

The  phase-out  of  the  Oracle  products  used  to  provide  the  user  interface  in  the  Eurofarm 
system  necessitates  a  major  migration  of  these  programs.  This  task  will  be  carried  out  with 
the help of external contractors and will require a significant effort (first rough estimate: 500 
man-days). It should be finished in 2007. 

The  Oracle  database  will  migrate  to  version  10  in  2006.  This  new  version  provides  novel 
features  which  will  be  examined  in  order  further  to  improve  the  performance  of  various 
programs. 

The budget allocated to the EUROFARM project (maintenance and development) amounted 
to 444.785 euros for the whole 2003-2005. 

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ANNEX 

Number of records (holdings) in the Eurofarm data base 

Country 

2003 

BE 

CZ 

DK 

DE 

EE 

EL 

ES 

FR 

IE 

IT 

CY 

LV 

LT 

LU 

HU 

MT 

NL 

AT 

PL 

PT 

SI 

SK 

FI 

SE 

UK 

BG 

RO 

NO 

54 942

16 060

25 348

95 926

7 524

88 447

51 979

73 956

54 062

45 179

45 199

43 850

272 106

2 450

280 294

1 465

85 501

34 458

2 172 205

37 401

13 706

23 551

74 952

67 890

280 625

665 548

4 484 893

58 231

2000 

61 705

57 831

471 959

817 059

1 287 418

663 807

141 527

2 153 724

140 835

2 814

966 916

101 545

199 469

1997 

67 182

1995 

70 977

1993 

76 327 

1990 

85 038

25 866

24 323

24 505 

25 507

82 139

45 379

52 868

52 017

73 040

77 382

46 805

56 113

50 646

78 099

81 915 

48 977 

59 985 

55 380 

72 887 

850 138

1 593 638

66 700

170 578

2 664 554

2 976

3 180

3 401 

3 945

107 919

34 512

113 202

221 750

119 724  

37 451

415 969

54 250

57 658

61 457 

598 742

86 467

71 038

81 190

81 407

233 246

70 740

33 504

31 601

233 149

35 850

30 098

69 732

75 066 

65 252

Total 

9 157 748

8 106 666

896 402

935 815

679 624 

6 161 543

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