REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission under Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 on the economic accounts for agriculture
Date: 2023-03-24
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, European Commission, European accounting system, common agricultural policy, delegated legislation, economic accounts for agriculture, powers of the institutions (EU), transfer of competence

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 24.3.2023  COM(2023) 158 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission under Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 on the economic accounts for agriculture  
 
 
1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Regulation  (EC)  No 138/2004  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  on 
economic  accounts  for  agriculture1  (EAA)  was  adopted  in  December  2003.  It  has 
been amended by Regulation (EU) No 1350/2013 of the European Parliament and of 
the  Council  of  11 December  2013  amending  certain  legislative  acts  in  the  field  of 
agricultural and fishery statistics2 to align implementing powers with the Treaty on 
the Functioning of the European Union. 

Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 confers on the Commission the power 
to adopt delegated acts. According to Article 2(2), this power can be used to amend 
the EAA methodology set  out  in  Annex I  and, according to  Article 3(3),  to  amend 
the list of variables for the provision of data set out in Annex II. 

Under  Article 4(2),  the  power  to  adopt  delegated  acts  is  conferred  for  a  period  of 
5 years 
renewed  until 
10 January 2024 in 20193.  

from  10 January 2014.  This  power  was 

tacitly 

The  power  is  to  be  tacitly  extended  for  periods  of  5  years  unless  the  European 
Parliament or the Council oppose such an extension. 

The Commission is obliged to draw up a report on the delegation of power no later 
than 9 months before the end of the 5-year period. This report fulfils that obligation. 

2. 

COMMISSION  EXERCISE  OF  DELEGATED  POWERS  UNDER  REGULATION  (EC) 
NO 138/2004 

The  Commission  has  exercised  its  power  and  adopted  Commission  Delegated 
Regulation  (EU)  2019/280  of  3 December  2018  amending  Regulation  (EC) 
No 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards references to 
the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union4. 

This  Delegated  Regulation  aligned  Regulation  (EC)  No 138/2004  with  Regulation 
(EU) No 549/20135  to  ensure international  comparability of the economic accounts 
for  agriculture,  by  maintaining  consistency  with  the  revised  European  system  of 
accounts (ESA). 

The ESA 2010 is to gradually replace all other systems as a reference framework of 
common standards, definitions,  classifications and accounting rules for  drawing up 
the  accounts  of  the  Member  States.  This  is  to  ensure  that  results  are  comparable 
between Member States. 

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/280 therefore introduced the technical 
changes  necessary  to  move  from  ESA  95  to  ESA  2010  in  Regulation  (EC) 
No 138/2004. 

1 
2 
3 

4 
5 

OJ L 33, 5.2.2004, p. 1-87. 
OJ L 351, 21.12.2013, p. 1-14. 
COM/2018/014 final 

OJ L 47, 19.2.2019, p. 7-32. 
OJ L174, 26.6.2013, p. 1-727. 

1 

 
 
                                                           
 
3. 

CONCLUSIONS 

The  Commission  has  exercised  its  delegated  powers  correctly  and  invites  the 
European Parliament and the Council to take note of this report. 

The Commission  considers that it should continue to  have these delegated powers, 
as it may need to adopt a delegated act to modify Annexes I and II to the Regulation 
as part of the future development of EAA, currently envisaged in ESA 2010, and to 
meet the needs of data users in light of the future common agricultural policy. 

Furthermore,  in  future  it  may  be  necessary  to  align  the  classification  of  products 
under EAA with the rest of agricultural statistics collected under 

  Regulation  (EU) 2018/1091 of the European Parliament and of the Council 
of 18 July 2018 on integrated farm statistics and repealing Regulations (EC) 
No 1166/2008 and (EU) No 1337/20116, and 

  Regulation  (EU) 2022/2379 of the European Parliament and of the Council 
of  23 November  2022  on  statistics  on  agricultural  input  and  output, 
amending  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No 617/2008  and  repealing 
Regulations (EC) No 1165/2008, (EC) No 543/2009 and (EC) No 1185/2009 
of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  and  Council  Directive 
96/16/EC7 

This  can  be  achieved  by  using  delegated  powers  conferred  on  the  Commission  to 
modify Annex II. 

6 

7 

OJ L 200, 7.8.2018, p. 1-29. 

OJ L 315, 7.12.2022, p. 1. 

2