REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 concerning statistics on pesticides
Date: 2021-12-14
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, agricultural census, application of EU law, data collection, environmental statistics, farming sector, market approval, pesticide, plant health control, statistical method

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 14.12.2021  COM(2021) 790 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL           on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 concerning statistics on pesticides            
 
 
  INTRODUCTION 

1.1.  Background 

Regulation  (EC)  No  1185/20091  (the  ‘Regulation’)  establishes  a  common  framework  for 
European statistics on pesticides. It covers statistics on the marketing of pesticides (‘statistics on 
pesticide  sales’)  and  statistics  on  the  agricultural  use  of  pesticides.  Under  Article  7  of  the 
Regulation, the Commission is required to submit a report on its implementation to the European 
Parliament and to the Council every 5 years. This report evaluates in particular the quality of the 
data transmitted,  the  methods  used  to collect  the  data  and  the  burden  this  poses  on  businesses, 
agricultural  holdings  and  national  administrations.  It  also  examines  the  extent  to  which  these 
statistics  are  useful  in  deploying  the  strategy  on  the  sustainable  use  of  pesticides,  and  in 
particular, in meeting the objectives set out in Article 1 of the Regulation. It contains proposals 
for further improving data quality and data collection  methods  that in turn help to improve the 
coverage  and  comparability  of  data  and  reduce  the  burden  on  businesses,  agricultural  holdings 
and national administrations. 

European statistics on pesticides serve in particular the purposes of Articles 4 and 15 of Directive 
2009/128/EC2.  Moreover,  the  Regulation  has  a  strong  link  to  Regulation  (EC)  No  1107/20093 
and, in particular, Article 67, which lays down certain reporting and record keeping obligations 
concerning the placing on the market and the use of pesticides. 

This  is  the  second  report  on  the  implementation  of  the  Regulation  and  it  covers  the  reference 
years 2015-2019 for both pesticide sales and agricultural use of pesticides. Adopted in 2017, the 
first report4 covered the reference years 2011 to 2014 for pesticide sales, and the reference period 
2010 to 2014 for the agricultural use of pesticides.  

1.2.  Developments at EU level since the last report 

In May 2019,  Commission Directive (EU) 2019/7825 establishing harmonised risk indicators to 
estimate  the  trends  in  risks  from  pesticide  use  was  adopted.  This  Directive  establishes 
harmonised risk indicators as referred to in Article 15(1) of Directive 2009/128/EC. Harmonised 
risk indicator 1 (HRI 1), which measures the use and risk of pesticides, is calculated by Eurostat 

1   Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 

concerning statistics on pesticides (OJ L 324, 10.12.2009, p. 1). 

2   Directive 2009/128/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 establishing 
a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides (OJ L 309, 24.11.2009, 
p. 71). 

3   Regulation  (EC)  No  1107/2009  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  21  October  2009 
concerning  the  placing  of  plant  protection  products  on  the  market  and  repealing  Council  Directives 
79/117/EEC and 91/414/EEC (OJ L 309, 24.11.2009, p. 1). 

4   https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:52017DC0109 

5      Commission  Directive  (EU)  2019/782  of  15  May  2019  amending  Directive  2009/128/EC  of  the 
European Parliament and of the Council as regards the establishment of harmonised risk indicators (OJ 
L 127, 16.5.2019, p. 4). 

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using  the  pesticide  sales  statistics  collected  under  the  Regulation  and  the  grouping  and  hazard 
weightings stipulated by the Commission Directive. 

In  May  2020,  the  Commission  adopted  the  ‘Farm  to  Fork  Strategy  –  for  a  fair,  healthy  and 
environmentally-friendly  food  system’6.  This  strategy  aims  to  accelerate  the  transition  to  a 
sustainable  food  system.  It  includes  a  target  to  reduce  the  overall  use  and  risk  of  chemical 
pesticides by 50% and the use of more hazardous pesticides by 50% by 2030. In the strategy’s 
action  plan,  the  Commission  proposed  revising  the  Regulation  to  fill  data  gaps  and  reinforce 
evidence-based policymaking.  

In  February  2020,  the  Court  of  Auditors  published  a  report  on  the  ‘Sustainable  use  of  plant 
protection products’7 which assessed whether the actions of the Commission and Member States 
had  led  to  a  reduction  in  the  risks  related  to  the  use  of  plant  protection  products  (PPPs)  and 
whether the relevant legislation provided effective incentives to reduce dependency on PPPs. The 
report  included  a  number  of  recommendations  to  the  Commission  concerning  statistics  on 
pesticides: 

 
 

 

improve access to PPP statistics; 
remove restrictive aggregation requirements for PPP statistics (Article 3(4) of the 
Regulation) to allow publication of more useful statistics (e.g. low-risk PPPs and active 
substances with specific properties);  
clarify, improve and harmonise the requirements for EU statistics on the agricultural use 
of PPPs (Annex II of the Regulation) to make it more available, comparable and useful 
(timeframe 2023). 

The legal instrument chosen to address the improvements needed is the legislative proposal for a 
Regulation on statistics on agricultural input and output (SAIO) adopted by the Commission on 2 
February  20218.  This  proposal  covers  agricultural  statistics  on  crops,  animals  and  agricultural 
prices,  nutrients  and  organic  production,  as  well  as  the  sales  and  agricultural  use  of  plant 
protection products. It will repeal the Regulation when in force. 

  COVERAGE AND CONTENT  

According  to  Article  2  (a)  of  the  Regulation,  ‘pesticides’  refer  to  ‘a  plant  protection  product’ 
(PPP) as defined in Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 or to a biocidal product used 
as  a  PPP  as  defined in  Article  2(1)  of  Directive  98/8/EC.  They  are  grouped  into  the  following 
categories: 

fungicides and bactericides 

 
  herbicides, haulm destructors and moss killers 
 
  molluscicides 

insecticides and acaricides 

6   For an overview of the strategy and related documents see https://ec.europa.eu/food/farm2fork_en  

7   European Court of Auditors special report 2020/5. Sustainable use of plant protection products: limited 

progress in measuring and reducing risks. 
https://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/SR20_05/SR_Pesticides_EN.pdf 

8   Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics on agricultural 
input  and  output  and  repealing  Regulations  (EC)  No  1165/2008,  (EC)  No  543/2009,  (EC)  No 
1185/2009 and Council Directive 96/16/EC - COM(2021)37 final. 

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  plant growth regulators 
  other plant protection products. 

The  list  of  active  substances  was  updated  for  reference  year  2016  by  Commission  Regulation 
(EU)  2017/2699.  Substances  approved  between  2011  and  2016  were  included  in  the  data 
collection,  while  some  substances  were  classified  differently  (for  example,  changed  from  the 
major group ‘Insecticides and acaricides‘ to ‘Other plant protection products’, or from the latter 
major  group  to  ‘Fungicides  and  bactericides’).  This  introduced  a  break  in  the  time  series.  The 
Commission (Eurostat) and the Member States are working to create a harmonised dataset over 
time.  

The Regulation stipulates that the Member States10 have to transmit annually to the Commission 
(Eurostat)  their  statistical  data  on  pesticides  placed  on  the  market  each  year  (pesticide  sales 
statistics). In addition, they have to provide statistics on the agricultural use of pesticides in five-
year  periods.  This  report  refers  to  the  data  and  quality  reports  transmitted  for  reference  years 
2015 to 2019 inclusive.  

Two  major  drawbacks  stem  from  the  stipulations  of  the  Regulation.  The  data  aggregation 
requirements  of  the  Regulation  (Article  3(4))  make  all  active  substance  level  data  non-
publishable.  This  has  a  drastic  impact  on  the  data  availability.  Another  major  drawback  of  the 
current data collection is the lack of harmonisation of the pesticide use data: Member States can 
freely choose the reference year in the five-year period (2015-2019) and a list of crops they deem 
representative of their national circumstances.  

2.1.  Coverage 

2.1.1.  Statistics on pesticide sales 

Under  the  Regulation,  EU  Member  States,  Iceland  and  Norway  have  the  obligation  to  send 
statistics  on  pesticide  sales  before  30 December  of  the  year  N+1  and  national  quality  reports 
before 31 March of the year N+2. Switzerland, Montenegro and Turkey transmit data and quality 
reports on a voluntary basis. 

2.1.2.  Statistics on the agricultural use of pesticides 

Under  the  Regulation,  EU  Member  States,  Iceland  and  Norway  (for the  purposes  here  referred 
together as “Member States”) are obliged to send data and quality reports on the agricultural use 
of pesticides for selected crops within 12 months of the end of each five-year period. The second 
five-year  period  ended  on  30 December  2019  and  countries  were  obliged  to  transmit  data  and 
quality  reports  until  30 December  2020.  The  selection  of  crops  must  be  representative  of  the 
crops cultivated in the Member State and of the substances used. The reference period is a period 

9   Commission  Regulation  (EU)  2017/269  of  16  February  2017  amending  Regulation  (EC)  No 
1185/2009  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  concerning  statistics  on  pesticides,  as 
regards the list of active substances (OJ L 40, 17.2.2017, p. 4). 

10   The  United  Kingdom  left  the  European  Union  on  31  January  2020. This  report  includes  the  UK  in 

Member States as it covers reference years 2015-2019.  

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of  a  maximum  of  12  months  covering  all  plant  protection  treatments  associated  directly  or 
indirectly with the crop. 

2.2.  Data collection methods and sources 

According to the Regulation, Member States can use different means for collecting the necessary 
data. Member States can use surveys, information concerning the placing on the market and use 
of  pesticides  stemming  from  the  obligations  pursuant  to  Article  67  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 
1107/2009,  administrative  sources  or  a  combination  of  these  means,  including  statistical 
estimation procedures based on expert judgements or models. 

2.2.1.  Statistics on pesticide sales 

For  most  of  the  Member  States  underlying  primary  data  on  pesticide  sales  are  derived  from 
administrative  sources  for  which  reporting  is  obligatory:    Article  67(3)  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 
1107/2009 stipulates that authorisation holders have to provide the competent authorities of the 
Member  States  with  all  data  relating  to  the  volume  of  sales  of  plant  protection  products  in 
accordance  with  EU  legislation  concerning  statistics  on  plant  protection  products.  Several 
countries  use  other  data  sources  such  as  census  and  (sample)  surveys,  or  a  combination  of 
administrative  and  other  sources.  More  information  on  national  practices  can  be  found  in  the 
national quality reports11. 

2.2.2.  Statistics on the agricultural use of pesticides  

Statistics  on  the  agricultural  use  of  pesticides  are  generally  based  on  statistical  surveys  of 
farmers. In some countries, a census is carried out on farms above a set threshold of hectares or 
based on the  expected turnover of the farm. Only  in exceptional cases are other data collection 
methods used: two countries use existing administrative data on pesticide use, two countries use 
the data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), two countries extrapolate the use 
from  the  pesticide  sales  data  and  one  country  uses  a  scientific  study  based  on  the  amounts  of 
pesticide residues in ground water stations.  

In some cases, the information is collected using electronic means such as online surveys or using 
farm management software. However, several countries pointed out that electronic means could 
not  be  used.  The  main  methods  countries  used  for  data  collection  are  paper  questionnaires  (7 
countries)  followed  by  face-to-face  interviews  (6  countries)  as  well  as  phone  interviews  and 
electronic  questionnaires  (4  countries  each),  or  a  combination  of  methods.  Other  methods  are 
digital  recordings  by  users  through  webpages,  direct  constant  access  to  data  in  databases, 
computer-assisted telephone interviews and computer-assisted web interviews. More information 
on national practices can be found in the national quality reports12. 

2.3.  Quality of the transmitted data 

While  Member  States  are  responsible  for  the  quality  of  pesticide  statistics,  the  Commission 
(Eurostat)  takes  the  necessary  measures  to  detect  errors  in  the  data  it  receives.  Member  States 

11     Pesticide sales (aei_fm_salpest09) (available only in English). 

12     Pesticide use in agriculture (aei_pestuse)  (available only in English). 

4 

 
 
 
                                                      
transmit  information  on  all  active  substances  and  all  aggregates  of  the  code  list13,  including 
confidential data, via the single entry point (EDAMIS portal), complying with the requested file 
structure and record format. The technical arrangements for data transmission apply a high level 
of standardisation. The Commission (Eurostat) maintains a reliable IT system for data reception, 
validation  and  processing  and  performs  several  types  of  data  checks:  completeness  and 
consistency  of  each  country’s  reporting  questionnaire,  verification  of  aggregations  of  pesticide 
volumes, and a time series check of the development over time. The Commission (Eurostat) also 
applies manual checks  on secondary confidentiality before disseminating the statistics and asks 
countries to send revised data for any errors detected. 

2.3.1.  Statistics on pesticide sales 

Most  Member  States  continued  to  provide  their  data  sets  on  time  and  cooperated  well  when 
further checks or corrections were required. Concerning accuracy, reliability, and comparability, 
most  countries  confirmed  that  their  primary  pesticide  sales  data  were  collected  from  the 
authorisation  holders.  They  considered  that  the  data  supplied  from  those  sources  were  of  good 
quality overall.  

The  Member  States  reported  taking  measures  to  ensure  the  statistical  quality  of  their  data: 
comparison of quantity data to previous year data, comparison with external data sources, control 
of reliability of declared quantities and products, control of abnormal and missing quantities and 
random  checks.  They  also  reported  applying  the  provisions  of  the  European  Statistics  Code  of 
Practice14.  

2.3.2.  Statistics on the agricultural use of pesticides  

Most countries provided their data sets on time and reacted quickly to requests for further checks 
and/or corrections. One country delivered the data several months late.    

Concerning accuracy, reliability, and comparability, most Member States considered that the data 
supplied  was  good.  Most  countries  consider  that  the  quality  of  the  data  is  stable  since  the 
publication of the first report in 2017. Six countries reported overall improvement of the quality 
of the statistics. Only one country reported that the comparability of data had deteriorated.  

The area treated with pesticides is not easy to sum up because of the aggregation requirement of 
active substances in chemical classes. If active substances belonging to the same chemical class 
or  group  are  applied  on  the  same  physical  area,  the  correct  summing  up  of  the  area  without 
double counting can only be done if the survey is designed taking this into account.  More than 
half of the countries cannot guarantee having excluded double counting of the crop areas treated 
with  pesticides,  which  limits  the  possibilities  of  disseminating  the  area-treated  data.  This  area 
aggregation can only be done by the national statistical authorities, because detailed parcel level 
information is needed.  

13   https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sdmxregistry/  (codes 

list  ‘CL_PESTICIDES’)  (available  only 

in 

English). 

14   European  Statistics  Code  of  Practice  -—  revised  edition  2017  -  Products  Catalogues  -  Eurostat 

(europa.eu) 

5 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                      
  RELEVANCE – USEFULNESS OF THE STATISTICAL DATA AND DISSEMINATION  

Eurostat publishes two datasets on pesticide statistics in its dissemination database: sales and the 
agricultural  use  of  pesticides15.  The  data  aggregation  requirements  of  the  Regulation  (Article 
3(4)) stipulate that the Commission (Eurostat) cannot publish any data on active substances.    

Due  to  the  data  aggregation  requirements  and  complex  confidentiality  issues,  the  Commission 
(Eurostat) initially disseminated only statistics on pesticide sales on the highest hierarchical level 
defined  in  Annex  III  of  the  Regulation:  ‘major  group’  (disseminated  since  2013).  The  next 
hierarchical  level,  ‘category  of  products’,  was  added  in  2018  and  ‘chemical  class’  in  2021. 
Hence, the availability of the data has improved since the previous reporting period.  

The  published  pesticide  statistics  are  still  affected  by  confidentiality  restrictions.  These  are 
related to the statistical confidentiality as defined by Regulation (EC) No 223/200916 and refer to 
data which allow statistical units to be identified, either directly or indirectly, thereby disclosing 
individual information. The impact of statistical confidentiality varies, depending on the Member 
State, the type of pesticide and the year. This is linked to the structure of the pesticide  industry 
and agriculture in the country. For the period 2011-2019, data on less than 1% of the total volume 
sold is confidential.  

Several  Member  States  disseminated  pesticide  sales  statistics  nationally,  without  any 
confidentiality applied. The Commission (Eurostat) facilitates access to the national statistics by 
providing the web links to the national pesticide statistics in the annex to the European metadata 
file17. 

It is very challenging to publish statistics on the agricultural use of pesticides due to aggregation 
requirements, lack of harmonisation of reference years and crops and the ‘treated area’ concept; 

  The Regulation stipulates that each country has to cover selected crops and related active 
substances representative of their agriculture and not all crops and pesticides used in the 
country. For a single reference year, the number of crops reported on by a single country 
ranges from 2 to 51. Around 150 different crops have been surveyed in total18. The 
Commission (Eurostat) has issued a crop-harmonisation proposal in order to improve the 

15   https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database  datasets  Pesticide  sales  [aei_fm_salpest09]  and  Pesticide 

use in agriculture [aei_pestuse]. 

16   Regulation  (EC)  No 223/2009  of  the  European Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  11 March  2009  on 
European statistics and repealing Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1101/2008 of the European Parliament 
and  of  the  Council  on  the  transmission  of  data  subject  to  statistical  confidentiality  to  the  Statistical 
Office of the European Communities, Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, 
and Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom establishing a Committee on the Statistical Programmes 
of the European Communities (OJ L 87, 31.3.2009, p. 164). 

17   https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/aei_fm_salpest09_esms.htm 

(available 

only 

in 

English). 

18   An  up-to-date  overview  of  the  statistics  on  the  use  of  agricultural  pesticides  on  crops  and  the 
corresponding reference years on major group level available for each reporting country is available in 
the  Annex  ‘Data  availability  overview’  in  the  metadata  file  attached  to  the  dataset  in  Eurostat’s 
dissemination 
database 
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/Annexes/aei_pestuse_esms_an2.xlsx  (available  only  in 
English). 

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comparability of the data for the reference period 2020-2024. However, it is up to the 
countries to decide whether they want to follow the proposal.  

  The countries can choose a reference year within the 5-year period stipulated by the 

Regulation. Some countries reported data from 1 out of 5 reference years, others reported 
from all 5 reference years (different crops).  

  The area treated with pesticides is not easy to sum up because of the aggregation 

requirement of active substances in chemical classes, as mentioned above in Section 
2.3.2.   

All these factors  substantially  limit the comparability and usefulness of data on  the agricultural 
use of pesticides.  

In 2019, the Commission (Eurostat) published a research paper on the data on the agricultural use 
of  pesticides19.  This  research  paper  summarised  the  main  results  and  challenges  of  the  data 
collection. The data set for the five-year period 2010-2014 was published in 2020, and the period 
2015-2019 was added in 2021. From the beginning, this dataset contained all three hierarchical 
levels: major group, category of products and chemical class. The treated areas (hectares) could 
not be disseminated at all for the first five-year period, as double counting could not be excluded. 
For the second five-year period, the treated areas could only be disseminated from countries that 
could guarantee that the area was counted only once (11 countries). For all other countries, only 
the quantity of pesticides (kilograms) is disseminated.  

The  reporting  unit  (kilograms  of  active  substance)  hampers  the  publication  of  microbiological 
pesticides, as there is no harmonised way to convert the more suitable units for microbiological 
pesticides  (colony-forming  unit  (CFU)  or  international  unit  (IU))  into  kilograms.  Due  to  these 
conversion  problems,  the  microbiological  substances  are  not  included  in  the  disseminated  data 
(sales  or  agricultural  use).  This  limits  the  possibilities  for  monitoring  the  use  of  these  active 
substances.  

The  Commission  calculated  and  published  harmonised  risk  indicator  120  based  on  the  pesticide 
sales  statistics  following  the  obligations  set  out  in  Article  15(1)  of  Directive  2009/128/EC  and 
Commission Directive (EU) 2019/782. These statistics are also used to monitor the farm to fork 
strategy targets on reducing the overall use and risk of chemical pesticides and the use of more 
hazardous pesticides21. 

The  main  users  of  pesticide  statistics  in  the  European  Commission  are  the  Directorate-General 
for Health and Food Safety, the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, the 
Directorate-General  for  Environment,  and  the  Joint  Research  Centre.  Other  users  of  pesticide 
statistics are national authorities, researchers, the business sector, NGOs, students and the public. 
The statistics are used to measure progress in reducing the risk from the use of plant protection 
products, together with other relevant data.  

The data users have repeatedly pointed out the need for more available data, i.e.:  

19 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/749240/0/Statistics+on+the+agricultural+use+of+pesticides+in+
the+EU  

20   https://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/pesticides/sustainable_use_pesticides/harmonised-risk-indicators_en  

21   Communication  from  the  Commission  to  the  European  Parliament,  the  Council,  the  European 
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Recommendations to the Member 
States as regards their strategic plan for the Common Agricultural Policy (COM(2020) 846 final). 

7 

 
 
 
                                                      
  data on active substances in pesticides for sale and agricultural use; 
  harmonised and more frequent data for the agricultural use of pesticides: same crops and 

annual data collection; and 

  more detailed spatial-level (regional) data for agricultural use. 

The Commission is working to improve the availability and quality of the data (see further details 
under Section 5). 

  COST AND BURDEN 

4.1.  Cost 

The national statistical institutes and other statistical authorities have estimated the global annual 
cost22 of collecting data on pesticide sales and the use of pesticides in agriculture to be around 4.7 
million  euro  for  23  EU  Member  States  and  Norway.  In  addition,  it  involves  about  43  persons 
labour  input  (in  full-time  equivalents).  The  median  figure  per  country  is  EUR 53  000  and  one 
full-time  equivalent  labour  force.  The  reported  cost  and  labour  force  is  rather  limited  in  most 
countries. 

4.2.  Burden 

The  burden  on  respondents  (authorisation  holders  for  pesticide  sales  and  agricultural  holdings 
and other professional users active in the agricultural sector for the agricultural use of pesticides) 
and national administrations vary, depending on the data collection method chosen.  

The countries reported that the burden on authorities and respondents for the pesticide sales data 
collection is relatively small, as the authorisation holders have an administrative responsibility to 
report  to  the  competent  authorities the sales  of  all  active  substances placed  on the  market. The 
statistics are in most cases a by-product of this administrative process.  

For  the  agricultural  use  of  pesticides,  the  situation  is  different:  under  Regulation  (EC)  No 
1107/2009,  all  professional  users  are  required  to  keep  records  on  their  use  of  pesticides.  This 
information should, in principle, be available upon request.  However, several issues make their 
use for statistics very challenging: the records are kept at farm level; they are rarely harmonised; 
and they can be kept in any format (paper or electronic). Because of this, most national statistical 
authorities have opted for organising a statistical survey.  

The countries using statistical surveys reported different levels of burden on respondents, ranging 
from  a  few  minutes  (small  farms  using  electronic  reporting)  to  three  hours  (larger  farms  using 
paper questionnaires). Even for countries carrying out statistical surveys, the additional burden on 
respondents is reasonable, as in any case the professional users are obliged to keep records on the 
use of pesticides.  For the seven countries using the administrative records  on pesticide use, the 

22     This  is  a  global  annual  figure  for  statistics  on  sales  and  agricultural  use.  The  total  cost  of  collecting 
statistics on the agricultural use of pesticides is divided by five, as the data is collected every 5 years. 
The cost is the sum of the annual cost of pesticide sales and one fifth of the cost of the statistics on the 
agricultural use of pesticides. In total 24 countries provided the cost estimates. Some were incomplete, 
as indirect costs were missing.  

8 

 
 
 
                                                      
FADN  data,  expert  estimates  or  scientific  modelling,  there  is  no  additional  burden  on 
respondents.  

Compared  to  the  first  five-year  period,  several  countries  reduced  the  burden  through  various 
measures:  more  user-friendly  questionnaires  (6),  easier  data  transmission  (5),  less  variables 
surveyed (3), multiple use of the collected data (3), other (3). Eight countries reported not having 
applied any measures to reduce the burden since the previous quality report (5 years ago).  

For  efficiency  gains,  most  of  the  countries  reported  efficiency  gains  due  to  further  automation 
(11), an increased use of administrative sources (5), online surveys (5), further training (4) and 
other measures (5). Ten countries reported no change since the previous quality report (5 years 
ago).  

  PROPOSALS FOR FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS  

The Commission is updating the list of active substances for which statistics should be reported 
(Annex III of the Regulation) in 2021 in accordance with Article 5(3)  of the Regulation23. The 
proposed  amendment  includes  several  aggregations  of  active  substances classified  according  to 
the  groups  and  categories  of  the  harmonised  risk  indicators24,  and  voluntary  reporting  on  the 
placing on the market of pesticides according to the intended sector of use (agriculture, forestry, 
amenity areas and storage). A large majority of the Member States have indicated that reporting 
the  sector  of  use  is  currently  not  feasible  for  the  statistical  authorities  because  the  data  is  not 
available. With this legal update, the Commission intends to improve the availability of pesticide 
statistics under the present legal framework.  

In 2016, the Commission evaluated the statistics on pesticides as part of the overall evaluation of 
agricultural  statistics25  and  subsequently  launched  the  ‘Strategy  for  Agricultural  Statistics  for 
2020  and  beyond’26.  This  is  a  major  programme  the  Commission  has  launched  in  close 
cooperation with Member States to modernise EU agricultural statistics.  

As part of this modernisation process, the Commission put forward a legislative  proposal for a 
Regulation  on  statistics  on  agricultural  input  and  output  on  2  February  2021.  It  will  repeal 
Regulation  (EC)  No  1185/2009  when  adopted.  With this  proposal,  statistics  on the  agricultural 
use of pesticides would be collected every year and not only every 5 years, as is the case now. 
The proposal does not include any compulsory data aggregation requirements for published data. 
This  change  would  make  the  active  substance  level  data  available.  However,  the  statistical 
confidentiality in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 will apply when relevant. The 
legislative  proposal  is  currently  under  interinstitutional  negotiations  between  the  European 
Parliament  and  the  Council.  The  Regulation  on  statistics  on  agricultural  input  and  output 
covering also pesticide statistics  is expected to be adopted in 2022 and would apply from 2024 
onwards. 

23   https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12973-Statistics-on-pesticides-

updated-list-of-active-substances  

24   Directive 2009/128/EC. 

25   SWD(2017)96  –  Commission  staff  working  document  evaluation  accompanying  the  document 
Strategy  for  Agricultural  Statistics  2020  and  beyond  and  subsequent  potential  legislative  scenarios, 
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52016SC0430 (available only in English). 

26   https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/agriculture/methodology/strategy-beyond-2020  (available  only  in 

English). 

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The  Commission  is  working  to  improve,  in  general,  data  reporting  on  the  use  of  pesticides. 
Several  initiatives  are  being  prepared  to  make  more  statistics  available  and,  in  particular,  to 
harmonize pesticide use records and make them available in electronic format to authorities so. It 
is expected that they can be used to better manage related policies. These efforts are being made 
in cooperation with other Commission departments.      

  CONCLUSIONS 

Statistics on the sale and use of pesticides in agriculture  have been  collected and published for 
pesticide sales since 2011 and for the agricultural use of pesticides for two 5-year data collection 
rounds 2010-2014 and 2015-2019. The availability and quality of the data have improved since 
the previous Commission  report in 2017 both for pesticide sales and for the agricultural use of 
pesticides.  More  than  half  of  the  Member  States  have  made  data  collection  more  efficient  and 
less burdensome for the respondents. 

However, the same problems observed in the first report still persist:  

  The  data  aggregation  requirements  of  the  Regulation  (Article  3(4))  prevent  the 
publication  of  all  active  substance-level  data.  This  has  a  detrimental  impact  on  data 
availability.  

  Lack of harmonisation of the data on pesticide use: Member States can freely choose the 
reference year in the five-year period and a list of crops they consider representative of 
the national circumstances.  

  Availability of data on pesticide use in agriculture only every 5 years. 
  Avoiding  double  counting  of  the  crop  areas  treated  with  active  substances  on  higher 

hierarchical pesticide levels is a methodological challenge. 

  Lack of availability of administrative data on  the professional use of pesticides in most 
Member  States:  professional  users  are  required  to  keep  records,  but  they  are  not 
harmonised and rarely kept electronically. 

  No  proper  solution  has  been  found  for  converting  microbiological  substances  into 
kilograms.  This  keeps  microbiological  pesticides  from  being  disseminated  and 
monitored. 

The Commission is taking action to overcome these disadvantages of pesticide statistics: 

  The Commission proposal for a Regulation on statistics on agricultural input and output 
put  forward  on  2  February  2021  will  incorporate  pesticide  statistics:  no  dissemination 
restrictions  are  proposed,  and  the  periodicity  of  agricultural  use  statistics  would  be 
increased from once every 5 years to once a year. This proposed Regulation is currently 
in the co-legislation process and is expected to be adopted by the European Parliament 
and the Council in the course of 2022 and be applicable from 2024 onwards.  

  The Commission and the national authorities are cooperating closely to make the records 
on  the  professional  use  of  pesticides  more  harmonised  and  available  for  statistical 
authorities in electronic format. 

  Technical and methodological exchanges with the Member States  are continuing in the 

form of meetings, webinars and written exchanges.  

10