Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 concerning livestock and meat statistics and repealing Council Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93/25/EEC (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2008-11-19
Institutions: Council of the European Union, European Parliament
Subjects: agricultural census, livestock, meat, statistical method

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(Acts adopted under the EC Treaty/Euratom Treaty whose publication is obligatory)

REGULATIONS

REGULATION (EC) No 1165/2008 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 19 November 2008

concerning livestock and meat statistics and repealing Council Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC
and 93/25/EEC

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

Community surveys to produce statistics on the structure
of agricultural holdings up to 2007.

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

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251
of the Treaty (1),

Whereas:

(1) Council Directive 93/23/EEC of 1 June 1993 on the
statistical surveys to be carried out on pig production (2),
Council Directive 93/24/EEC of 1 June 1993 on the
statistical surveys to be carried out on bovine animal
production (3) and Council Directive 93/25/EEC of 1 June
1993 on the statistical surveys to be carried out on sheep
and goat stocks (4) have been amended several
times.
and simplifications now being
Further
for reasons of clarity, be
necessary,
replaced by one single act.

these acts should,

amendments

(2)

In order to ensure that the common agricultural policy is
properly administered, particularly where the beef, veal,
pigmeat, sheepmeat, goatmeat and poultrymeat markets are
concerned, the Commission requires regular data on trends
in livestock and meat production.

(3) Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 of 29 February 1988
on the organisation of Community surveys on the structure
of agricultural holdings (5) provides for a programme of

(1) Opinion of the European Parliament of 20 May 2008 (not yet
published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 27 October
2008.

(2) OJ L 149, 21.6.1993, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 149, 21.6.1993, p. 5.
(4) OJ L 149, 21.6.1993, p. 10.
(5) OJ L 56, 2.3.1988, p. 1.

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

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) (6), all Member States'
statistics transmitted to the Commission which are broken
down by territorial units are to use the NUTS classification.
in order to establish comparable regional
Consequently,
statistics,
should be defined in
territorial units
the
accordance with the NUTS classification.

In order to limit the burden on Member States, regional
data requirements should not exceed the requirements
established by previous legislation (unless new regional
levels have come into existence in the meantime) and
regional data should be optional when regional livestock
numbers are below certain thresholds.

In order to facilitate implementation of this Regulation,
close cooperation is necessary between Member States and
the Commission and this may be achieved in particular
with the assistance of
the Standing Committee for
Agricultural Statistics set up by Council Decision 72/279/
EEC (7).

In order to ensure a smooth transition from the regime
applicable under Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93/
25/EEC, this Regulation should allow for the granting of a
derogation for a period of up to one year and, in the case of
sheep and goats, up to two years, to Member States where
application of this Regulation to their national statistical

(6) OJ L 154, 21.6.2003, p. 1.
(7) OJ L 179, 7.8.1972, p. 1.

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systems would require major adaptations and would be
likely to cause significant practical problems.

(c)

production forecasts of beef, veal, pigmeat, sheepmeat and
goatmeat.

(8)

(9)

The measures for the production of statistics provided for
in this Regulation are necessary for carrying out
the
activities of the Community. Since the objective of this
Regulation, namely the establishment of a common legal
framework for the systematic production of Community
statistics on livestock and meat in Member States, cannot be
sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can
therefore be better achieved at Community level,
the
Community may adopt measures, 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 that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond
what is necessary to achieve that objective.

In accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of
17 February 1997 on Community statistics (1), which
constitutes the reference framework for the provisions of
this Regulation, it is necessary for the collection of statistics
to conform to the principles of impartiality, meaning in
particular objectivity and scientific independence, as well as
transparency, reliability, relevance, cost-effectiveness and
statistical confidentiality.

(10) 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
implementing powers
the exercise of
conferred on the Commission (2).

for

(11)

In particular, the Commission should be empowered to
amend Annexes I, II, IV and V. Since such measures are of
general scope and are designed to amend non-essential
elements of this Regulation, inter alia, by supplementing it
with 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.

(12) Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93/25/EEC should

therefore be repealed.

(13) The Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics has been

consulted,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Subject matter

The purpose of this Regulation is to establish a common legal
the systematic production of Community
framework for
statistics on livestock and meat production in Member States,
in particular:

(a)

statistics on bovine, pig, sheep and goat livestock;

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation the following definitions
shall apply:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

‘agricultural holding’ means an agricultural holding as
defined in Article 2(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008 of
the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 Novem-
ber 2008 on farm structure surveys and the survey on
agricultural production methods (3);

‘sample survey’ means a sample survey as defined in
Article 2(c) of Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008;

the term ‘bovine animal’ means domestic animals of the
species Bos taurus and Bubalus bubalis, including hybrids like
Beefalo;

the term ‘pig’ means domestic animals of the species Sus
scrofa domestica;

the term ‘sheep’ means domestic animals of the species Ovis
aries;

the term ‘goat’ means domestic animals of the subspecies
Capra aegagrus hircus;

the term ‘poultry’ means domestic birds of the species
Gallus gallus (chickens), Meleagris spp. (turkeys), Anas spp.
and Cairina moschata (ducks) and Anser anser dom. (geese).
Domestic birds of
(quails),
Phasianus spp. (pheasants), Numida meleagris dom. (guinea-
fowl), Columbinae
(pigeons), and Struthio camelus
(ostriches) are included. It excludes, however, birds raised
in confinement for hunting purposes and not for meat
production;

the species Coturnix spp.

spp.

8.

the term ‘slaughterhouse’ means an officially registered and
approved establishment used for slaughtering and dressing
animals whose meat is intended for human consumption.

Other definitions for the purposes of the present Regulation are
set out in Annex I.

SECTION I

LIVESTOCK STATISTICS

Article 3

Coverage

(b)

slaughtering statistics on bovine animals, pigs, sheep, goats
and poultry; and

1.
Each Member State shall produce statistics on the number of
bovine animals, pigs, sheep and goats held on agricultural
holdings within its territory.

(1) OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.

(3) See page 14 of this Official Journal.

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2. Member States conducting sample surveys shall cover
sufficient agricultural holdings to account for at least 95 % of
the entire population, as determined by the last survey on the
structure of agricultural holdings.

Article 7

Transmission deadlines

Article 4

transmit
1. Member States shall
provisional livestock statistics before:

to the Commission the

Frequency and reference period

(a)

15 September of the same year for the May/June statistics;

1. The bovine livestock statistics shall be produced twice a year,
with reference to a given day in May/June and a given day in
November/December. Those Member States whose bovine-
animal populations are below 1 500 000 head may produce
these statistics only once a year, with reference to a given day in
November/December.

(b) 15 February of

the following year for the November/

December statistics.

2. Member States shall
transmit
definitive livestock statistics before:

to the Commission the

2. The pig livestock statistics shall be produced twice a year,
with reference to a given day in May/June and a given day in
November/December. Those Member States whose pig popula-
tions are below 3 000 000 head may produce these statistics
only once a year, with reference to a given day in November/
December.

(a)

15 October of the same year for the May/June statistics;

(b) 15 May of the following year for the November/December

statistics.

3. The sheep livestock statistics shall be produced once a year,
with reference to a given day in November/December, by those
Member States whose sheep populations are 500 000 head or
above.

4. The goat livestock statistics shall be produced once a year,
with reference to a given day in November/December, by those
Member States whose goat populations are 500 000 head or
above.

Article 5

Categories

The livestock statistics shall be produced for the categories set
out in Annex II.

Article 6

Precision

1. Member States conducting sample surveys shall take all
necessary steps to ensure that the extrapolated national survey
results meet the precision requirements set out in Annex III.

2. A Member State which decides to use an administrative
source shall inform the Commission in advance and shall provide
details concerning the method to be used and the quality of the
data from that administrative source.

Article 8

Regional statistics

The November/December statistics shall be broken down by
NUTS 1 and NUTS 2 territorial units as defined in Regulation
(EC) No 1059/2003. By way of exception they may be provided
only by NUTS 1 territorial units for Germany and the United
Kingdom. They are optional for territorial units having fewer
than 75 000 bovine animals, 150 000 pigs, 100 000 sheep and
25 000 goats if these territorial units together constitute 5 % or
less of the national population of the relevant animals.

SECTION II

SLAUGHTERING STATISTICS

Article 9

Coverage

Each Member State shall produce statistics relating to the number
and carcass weight of bovine animals, pigs, sheep, goats and
poultry slaughtered in slaughterhouses on its territory, whose
meat is deemed fit for human consumption. It shall also supply
estimates of the extent of slaughtering carried out other than in
slaughterhouses, so that the statistics include all bovine animals,
pigs, sheep and goats slaughtered on its territory.

Article 10

Frequency and reference period

3. A Member State which decides to use sources other than
surveys shall ensure that information obtained from such sources
is of at least equal quality to information obtained from statistical
surveys.

1. The statistics on slaughtering in slaughterhouses shall be
produced monthly by each Member State. The reference period
shall be the calendar month.

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2. The statistics on slaughtering carried out other than in
slaughterhouses shall be produced annually by each Member
State. The reference period shall be the calendar year.

5. The forecasts shall cover:

Article 11

Categories

The statistics on slaughtering shall be produced for the categories
set out in Annex IV.

Article 12

Transmission deadlines

Member States shall transmit to the Commission the statistics:

(a)

three semesters for bovine animals and four quarters for
pigs for Member States that produce forecasts twice a year;

(b)

four semesters for bovine animals and six quarters for pigs
for Member States that produce forecasts once a year;

(c)

two semesters for sheep and goats.

Article 15

Categories

on slaughtering in slaughterhouses within 60 days follow-
ing the reference period;

The forecasts shall be produced for the categories set out in
Annex V.

(a)

(b)

on slaughtering carried out other than in slaughterhouses
before 30 June of the following year.

SECTION III

MEAT PRODUCTION FORECASTS

Article 13

Coverage

Member States shall use the statistics mentioned in Sections I and
II, and other available information, to produce forecasts of their
supply of bovine animals, pigs, sheep and goats. This supply shall
be expressed as
indigenous production, which
corresponds to the number of bovine animals, pigs, sheep and
goats slaughtered plus the balance of
intra-Community and
external trade in these live animals

the gross

Article 14

Frequency and reference period

1. The forecasts for bovine animals shall be produced twice a
year by each Member State. Member States whose bovine-animal
populations are below 1 500 000 head may produce these
forecasts only once a year.

2. The forecasts for pigs shall be produced twice a year by each
Member State. Member States whose pig populations are below
3 000 000 head may produce these forecasts only once a year.

3. The forecasts for sheep shall be produced once a year by
Member States whose sheep populations are 500 000 head or
above.

Article 16

Transmission deadlines

Member States shall
production forecasts:

transmit

to the Commission the meat

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

before 15 February for forecasts for bovine animals from
the beginning of the first semester of the current year to the
end of the first semester of the following year, and before
15 September for forecasts from the beginning of the
second semester of the current year to the end of the
second semester of the following year for Member States
that produce forecasts twice a year;

before 15 February for forecasts for bovine animals from
the beginning of the first semester of the current year to the
end of
the following year for
Member States that produce forecasts once a year;

the second semester of

forecasts

for pigs

before 15 February for
from the
beginning of the first quarter to the end of the fourth
quarter of the current year, and before 15 September for
forecasts from the beginning of the third quarter of the
current year to the end of
the
following year for Member States that produce forecasts
twice a year;

the second quarter of

before 15 February for
from the
beginning of the first quarter of the current year to the
end of the second quarter of the following year for Member
States that produce forecasts once a year;

for pigs

forecasts

4. The forecasts for goats shall be produced once a year by
Member States whose goat populations are 500 000 head or
above.

(e)

before 15 February for forecasts for sheep and goats from
the beginning of the first semester of the current year to the
end of the second semester of the current year.

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SECTION IV

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 17

shall

inform the Commission of any
4. Member States
methodological or other change which would have a consider-
able effect on the statistics. This shall be done not later than three
months after such change enters into force.

Quality assessment and reports

5. The principle that additional costs and burdens remain
within reasonable limits shall be taken into account.

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following quality
1.
assessment dimensions shall apply to the data to be transmitted:

(a)

‘relevance’ shall refer to the degree to which statistics meet
current and potential needs of the users;

(b)

‘accuracy’ shall refer to the closeness of estimates to the
unknown true values;

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

shall

‘timeliness’
to the time lag between the
availability of the information and the event or phenom-
enon it describes;

refer

‘punctuality’ shall refer to the time lag between the date of
the release of the data and the target date when it should
have been delivered;

‘accessibility’ and ‘clarity’ shall refer to the conditions and
modalities by which users can obtain, use and interpret
data;

‘comparability’ shall refer to the measurement of the impact
of differences in applied statistical concepts and measure-
ment tools and procedures when statistics are compared
between geographical areas, sectoral domains or over time;
and

(g)

‘coherence’ shall refer to the adequacy of the data to be
reliably combined in different ways and for various uses.

Every three years, and for the first time by 1 July 2011,
2.
Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with a
report on the quality of the data transmitted.

3. The quality reports shall describe:

(a)

the organisation of the surveys covered by this Regulation
and the methodology applied;

(b)

the level of precision achieved for the sample surveys
referred to in this Regulation;

(c)

the quality of sources other than surveys which are used;
and

Article 18

Implementing measures

1. The measures designed to amend non-essential elements of
this Regulation, inter alia, by supplementing it, and which relate
to modifications of Annexes I, II, IV and V, shall be adopted in
accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred
to in Article 19(2).

2. The principle that
the benefits of modifications must
outweigh their costs, and the principle that additional costs
and burdens remain within reasonable limits shall be taken into
account.

Article 19

Committee procedure

1. The Commission shall be
Committee for Agricultural Statistics.

assisted by the Standing

2. 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 20

Derogation

1. Where the application of this Regulation to the national
statistical system of a Member State necessitates major adapta-
tions and is likely to cause significant practical problems, the
Commission may grant a derogation from its application until
1 January 2010 or, in the case of statistics on sheep and goats,
until 1 January 2011.

Such Member States shall inform the Commission thereof

2.
not later than 21 March 2009.

Article 21

Repeal

(d)

the quality of the forecasts referred to in this Regulation.

1. Without prejudice to paragraph 3 of this Article, Directives
93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93/25/EEC shall be repealed.

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2. References to the repealed directives shall be construed as
references to this Regulation.

3. By way of derogation from Article 22(2), a Member State
having been granted a derogation in accordance with Article 20
shall continue to apply the provisions of Directives 93/23/EEC,
93/24/EEC and 93/25/EEC for the duration of the derogation
period.

Article 22

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following
its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 1 January 2009.

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

Done at Strasbourg, 19 November 2008.

For the European Parliament

The President

H.-G. PÖTTERING

For the Council

The President

J.-P. JOUYET

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ANNEX I

DEFINITIONS

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

1.

categories of bovine animals

Annex II

Annexes IV and V

Bovine animals aged 8 months or
under

Bovine animals aged over 8 but not
over 12 months

Non-castrated male bovine animals
not included under calves and young
cattle

Castrated male bovine animals not
included under calves and young
cattle

Female bovine animals that have not
yet calved and which are not included
under calves and young cattle

Female bovine animals
calved

that have

Calves

Young cattle

Calves and young cattle for slaughter

Calves and young cattle aged not
over 12 months old for slaughter

Bulls

Bullocks

Heifers

Female bovine animals that have
not yet calved and which are not
included under calves and young
cattle

Heifers for slaughter

Heifers raised for meat production

Other heifers

Cows

Dairy cows

Other cows

raised for breeding and
Heifers
intended to replace dairy or other
cows

Female bovine animals that have
calved (including any aged under
two years)

Cows kept exclusively or princi-
pally for the production of milk for
human consumption and/or
for
processing into dairy products,
including cull cows for slaughter
(whether fattened or not between
last lactation and slaughter)

Cows other than dairy cows, pos-
sibly including any draught cows

2.

categories of sheep

Ewes and ewe lambs put to the ram: females of the ovine species which have already lambed at least once as well as
those which have been put to the ram for the first time.

Milk ewes: ewes kept exclusively or principally for the production of milk for human consumption and/or for
processing into dairy products,
including cast milk sheep (whether fattened or not between last lactation and
slaughter).

Other ewes: ewes other than milk ewes.

Lambs: male or female sheep under 12 months old.

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3.

the term ‘carcass’

(a)

(b)

(c)

for bovine animals means the whole body of a slaughtered animal as presented after bleeding, evisceration and
skinning, presented without the head (separated from the carcass at the atloido-occipital joint); without the feet
(severed at the carpametacarpal or tarsometatarsal joints); without the organs contained in the thoracic and
abdominal cavities with or without the kidneys, the kidney fat and the pelvic fat; and without the sexual organs
and the attached muscles and without the udder or the mammary fat;

for pigs means the body of a slaughtered pig, bled and eviscerated, whole or divided down the mid-line, without
tongue, bristles, hooves, sexual organs, flare fat, kidneys and diaphragm;

for sheep and goats means the whole body of a slaughtered animal as presented after bleeding, evisceration and
skinning, presented without the head (separated at the atloido-occipital joint); without the feet (severed at the
carpametacarpal or tarsometatarsal joints); without the tail (severed between the sixth and seventh caudal
vertebrae); without the organs contained in the thoracic and abdominal cavities (except the kidneys and kidney
fat); and without the udder and sexual organs; the kidneys and kidney fat are part of the carcass;

(d)

for poultry means the animal plucked and drawn, without head and feet and without neck, heart, liver and
gizzard, known as ‘65 % chicken’, or otherwise presented.

4.

The term ‘carcass weight’ means the weight of the cold carcass which, for pigs, notably, is obtained by subtracting 2 %
from the weight recorded warm 45 minutes, at the latest, after the pig is bled, and which for cattle is obtained by
subtracting 2 % from the weight recorded warm 60 minutes, at the latest, after the animal is bled.

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ANNEX II

CATEGORIES OF LIVESTOCK STATISTICS

Bovine animals

— bovine animals aged not over 1 year:

— calves and young cattle for slaughter

— other:

— male

— female

— bovine animals aged over 1 year but under 2 years (except females that have calved):

— male

— female (heifers; animals that have not yet calved):

— animals for slaughter

— other

— bovine animals of 2 years and over:

— male

— female:

— heifers:

— heifers for slaughter

— other

— cows (bovine animals that have calved, including those that are under 2 years old):

— dairy cows

— other

— buffaloes:

— female breeding buffaloes

— other buffaloes

Pigs

— piglets with a live weight of less than 20 kg

— pigs with a live weight of 20 kg or more but less than 50 kg

— fattening pigs, including cull boars and cull sows with a live weight:

— of 50 kg or more but less than 80 kg

— of 80 kg or more but less than 110 kg

— of 110 kg or more

— breeding pigs with a live weight of 50 kg and over:

— boars

— covered sows, of which:

— sows covered for the first time

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— other sows, of which:

— gilts not yet covered

Sheep

— ewes and ewe lambs put to the ram:

— milk ewes and milk ewe lambs put to the ram

— other ewes and ewe lambs put to the ram

— other sheep

Goats

— goats which have already kidded and goats which have been mated:

— goats which have already kidded

— goats mated for the first time

— other goats

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ANNEX III

PRECISION REQUIREMENTS

In the case of livestock surveys, the sampling errors for the results of each Member State shall not exceed (with a confidence
interval of 68 %):

(a)

1 % of the total number of bovine animals (5 % where the bovine-animal population is below 1 000 000 head);

(b)

1,5 % of the total number of cows (5 % where the cow population is below 500 000 head);

(c)

2 % of the total number of pigs (5 % where the pig population is below 1 000 000 head); and

(d)

2 % of the total number of sheep and of goats (5 % where the sheep and the goat population is below 1 000 000
head).

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ANNEX IV

CATEGORIES OF SLAUGHTERING STATISTICS

Bovine animals

— calves

— young cattle

— heifers

— cows

— bulls

— bullocks

Pigs

No breakdown

Sheep

— lambs

— others

Goats

No breakdown

Poultry

— chickens

— turkeys

— ducks

— others

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ANNEX V

CATEGORIES OF MEAT PRODUCTION FORECASTS

Bovine animals

— calves and young cattle

— heifers

— cows

— bulls and bullocks

Pigs

No breakdown

Sheep

No breakdown

Goats

No breakdown