CELEX: 51988PC0183
Language: en
Date: 1988-04-11
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DECISION ON SPECIAL SUPPORT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS IN IRELAND

5. 5. 88                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                  No C 118/9
                                                             II
                                                     (Preparatory Acts)
                                                COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Decision on special support for the development of agricultural statistics
                                                         in Ireland
                                                    COM(88) 183 final
                             (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 20 April 1988)
                                                       (88/C 118/06)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                          or personnel within the meaning of Article 1 (4) of
                                                                  Council Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 of 21 April 1970
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European             on the financing of the common agricultural policy ('),
Economic Community, and in particular Article 43                  as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 3769/85 ( 2 );
thereof,
                                                                  Whereas the three-year programme (hereinafter called
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                'the programme') submitted by Ireland to meet
                                                                  Community requirements in the area of agricultural stat-
Having regard       to  the  opinion   of  the   European         istics involves overall expenditure of 7 million ECU and
Parliament,                                                      whereas the Community contribution should not exceed
                                                                 half of that sum;
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee,                                                Whereas, while Ireland should retain responsibility for
                                                                 the management of the programme in the light of
                                                                 existing administrative structures, certain conditions
Whereas it is necessary, for effective and balanced
                                                                  should be laid down to guarantee optimum utilization of
implementation of the common agricultural policy in
                                                                 the Community's financial contribution;
Ireland, to have statistical information of satisfactory
scope and reliability on agricultural holdings and mainly
                                                                 Whereas the Community must be able to ensure that the
on farming activity undertaken on agricultural holdings
                                                                 measures taken by Ireland will help to attain the
in that country;
                                                                 objectives of the joint action and will fulfil the conditions
                                                                 under which the Community financing is granted, and
Whereas the implementation of an effective system for            whereas the Commission will take the measures required
recording statistics which are mainly based on farm              to review the programme;
holdings in the agricultural sector in Ireland will be in
the interest of the Community and will contribute to the         Whereas a procedure should be laid down whereby the
attainment of the objectives defined in Article 39 (1) (a)        Member States and the Commission will cooperate
of the Treaty;                                                   closely in the Standing Committee for Agricultural Stat-
                                                                 istics,
Whereas, for technical and organizational reasons
fundamental and far-reaching changes to the system for
collecting and processing of basic information relating to        HAD ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
agricultural holdings should be made from 1988 to
permit Ireland to meet, both from a qualitative and a                                        Article 1
quantitative point of view, the needs for statistical data        In order to reorganize a system for compiling and
required for the formulation and the follow-up of the             processing statistics in the agricultural sector in Ireland
common agricultural policy;                                       which will fully satisfy Community requirements in this
                                                                  field, Ireland shall ensure:
Whereas, on account of economic and budgetary
constraints, Ireland does not have sufficient means to            (a) the strengthening of the central technical and admin-
undertake the considerable development work necessary                  istrative infrastructure responsible for organizing,
to introduce an effective and reliable new survey system;              programming and implementing the compiling and
                                                                       processing of agricultural statistical data;
Whereas a Community contribution towards financing
the measures to be taken must be envisaged without,
however, making expenditure chargeable to the                     (') OJ No L 94, 28. 4. 1970, p. 13.
Community budget which relates to administrative costs            O OJ No L 362, 31. 12. 1985, p. 17.
 ---pagebreak---  No C 118/10                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                 5. 5. 88
 (b) the strengthening of the local technical and adminis-         (b) the annual detailed programme to be carried out the
     trative infrastructure so that the required surveys are           next year (year t + 1).
     carried out in such a manner as to guarantee their            2.   At the request of the Commission, Ireland shall
     statistical validity;                                         supply additional information as necessary on the
                                                                   progress achieved in implementing the programme.
 (c) an improved basis for sampling by creating a register
     of agricultural holdings;                                     3.   The report on the progress of work and the annual
                                                                   programme are to be approved by the Commission
 (d) the gradual introduction of a coherent programme of
                                                                   according to the procedure as laid down in Article 7.
     statistical surveys, conducted on the basis of samples
     at agricultural holding level, by interviewers chosen                                  Article 5
     and specially trained for that purpose.
                                                                  The Commission shall take all the necessary steps to
                           Article 2                              ensure that the running of the programme enables the
                                                                  objectives referred to in Article 1 to be achieved.
Ireland shall ensure that, once the restructuring is
completed, the organization of the system referred to in                                    Article 6
Article 1 guarantees the carrying out of existing or future
relevant surveys at Community level and that these                 1.   The Community shall reimburse to Ireland 50 °/o of
                                                                  actual expenditure on the programme up to the amount
surveys fulfil the requirements of Community law as
                                                                  of the appropriations entered for this purpose in the
regards scope and purpose and the reliability and time
                                                                  general budget of the European Communities. The
limits prescribed, without any further financial aid being
                                                                  estimated expenditure to be borne by the Community
granted by the Community, other than the contribution
                                                                  amounts to 3,5 million ECU for the programme as a
provided for in this Decision, except in cases where
                                                                  whole.
Community contributions are also laid down for the
other Member States.                                              2.    Applications for reimbursement shall refer to the
                                                                  sums spent by Ireland during a year and shall be
                           Article 3                              presented to the Commission during the year which
                                                                  follows together with the report on the progress of work
1.     The organization of the new system of surveys              as laid down in Article 4 (1).
referred to in Article 1 shall take the form of a
programme which is to begin in 1988 and shall be spread                                     Article 7
over a period of three years (1988 to 1990). The new
system shall apply in particular to work on agricultural           1.   Where the procedure laid down in this Article is to
statistics, involving surveys on agricultural holdings            be followed, the matter shall be referred to the Standing
provided for in the statistical programmes of the                 Committee on Agricultural Statistics by its chairman,
European Communities.                                             either on this own initiative or at the request of the
                                                                  representative of a Member State.
2.     The timetable for the carrying           out  of  the
                                                                  2.    The representative of the Commission shall submit
programme is laid down in the Annex.
                                                                  to the Committee a draft of the measures to be taken.
3.     Ireland shall be entitled to submit amendments to          The Standing Committee on Agricultural statistics shall
the running of the programme. The Commission shall                give its opinion on these measures within a time limit
decide whether such amendments shall be approved, in              which may be set by the chairman in accordance with
accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 7.             the urgency of the maters submitted for discussion. It
                                                                  shall act by a majority of 54 votes, the votes of the
                                                                  Member States being weighted as laid down in Article
                           Article 4
                                                                  148 (2) of the Treaty. The Chairman shall not vote.
1.     From 1988 to 1990 Ireland shall carry out the
                                                                  3.    The Commission shall adopt the measures, which
programme described in the Annex. Ireland shall submit            shall be immediately applicable. However, if they are not
in the month of June of each of the years 1988, 1989,             in accordance with the opinion of the Standing
1990 and 1991 (year V):                                           Committee on Agricultural Statistics, the Commission
(a) a progress report on the work completed (during               shall submit them to the Council without delay; if this is
     year t minus 1), detailing particularly information on       done, the Commission may delay the application of the
     the progress made in the reinforcement of the                proposed measures by not more than one month after
     technical and administrative machinery and on the            the date of submission.
     experience gained from the implementation of the
                                                                  The Council may take a different decision within a
     programme. This report shall be accompanied by a
                                                                  period of one month, acting by a qualified majority.
     detailed report (table) on the financing of the
     programme as carried out and on the financial                                          Article 8
     aspects of the part supported by Community contri-
     bution;                                                      This Decision is addressed to Ireland.
 ---pagebreak--- 5. 5. 88                              Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n C o m m u n i t i e s            N o C 118/11
                                                                ANNEX
                                 Timetable for implementing the three-year development plan
                                                             (1988 to 1990)
         Year 1 (1988)
         The following work programme will be pursued in 1988:
         — large-scale pilot tests of a new postal survey approach will be undertaken in tandem with the traditional
             enumerator survey system,
         — the results of the pilot tests will be examined to determine optimum survey procedures with particular
             attention being paid to questionnaire design, dispatch and receipt of forms, non-response follow-up
             procedure and data processing requirements,
         — direct comparisons will be made between data obtained through use of the new and existing survey
             procedures with a view to establishing linkages which will allow continuity to be maintained in the
             population estimates produced in the interim changeover period,
         — available administrative sources will be examined to determine their statistical potential and, in
             particular, the extent to which they can be incorporated into a comprehensive and up-to-date register
             system for agricultural holdings,
         — the programme for the acquisition of computer and other necessary support equipment (hardware and
             software) will be commenced,
         — work will be started on the development of computer systems etc. for the handling and processing of
             the surveys,
         — training programmes for personnel engaged in the conduct and processing of the surveys will be
             initiated.
         Year 2 (1989)
         The programme of work outlined for 1988 will be continued with the following key features or additions:
         — the changeover to a fully postal system for the annual sample inquiries will be completed and the new
             system thus established will be maintained on an interim basis pending the completion of the overall
             development programme,
         — Preparations will be made for the fieldwork, to be undertaken in 1990, for the establishment of a new
             comprehensive register of holdings,
         — the computer processing systems etc. will be developed so as to handle a full-scale census of agriculture
             to be held in conjunction with the register fieldwork in 1990.
         Year 3 (1990)
         The programme of work initiated in the previous two years will be brought to a completion in 1990, with
         the establishment of a computer-based register of holdings following an extensive field operation in June
         1990.
         The new register will be used to launch a permanent series of annual postal surveys in early 1991 which
         will replace the interim series established in 1989. Procedures for maintaining the base register up to date,
         through linkage with administrative records and the use of special surveys, will also be put in place.