EU integrated farm statistics

 

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 on integrated farm statistics

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

• It seeks to improve the production of EU agricultural statistics to ensure that they are consistent and comparable across the EU. This would allow decision-makers and other users to better plan for the future common agricultural policy, as well as to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of policies already in place.
• It repeals:
  • Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008 on farm structure surveys from 1 January 2019;
  • Regulation (EU) No 1337/2011 on production of EU statistics for permanent crops from 1 January 2022.

KEY POINTS

The regulation:

• establishes a simplified and modernised system for collecting European agricultural statistics at farm level. This allows for the integration of structural information with other information such as production methods, rural development measures and agro-environmental aspects;
• is designed to ensure the continuation of a series of European farm structure surveys, enabling a consistent time series to be maintained while fulfilling new and emerging needs for data at farm level;
• provides a series of definitions including common land agricultural unit*, livestock unit*, utilised agricultural area* and kitchen gardens*.

Coverage and data sources

The data required by the regulation must cover:

• 98% of the total utilised agricultural area (excluding kitchen gardens); and
• 98% of the livestock units of each EU country.

So long as they meet the quality requirements laid down in the regulation, EU countries can use one or more of the following sources or methods to produce statistics:

• statistical surveys;
• administrative sources such as data from:
  • the integrated administration and control system (Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013);
  • the system for the identification and registration of bovine animals (Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000);
  • the system for the identification of sheep and goats (Regulation (EC) No 21/2004);
  • the vineyard register (Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013); and
  • the organic farm registers (Regulation (EC) No 834/2007);
• other sources, methods or innovative approaches (EU countries must give advance notice to Eurostat of their intention to use these and provide details of how they will be used).

EU countries must collect and provide the core structural data* for the reference years 2020, 2023 and 2026, as listed in Annex III of the regulation. The core data collection for the reference year 2020 is to be carried out as a census.

EU countries may, where this 2020 census overlaps with the 10-year population census, bring the farm data collection forward by a year to avoid the burden of conducting two major data collections at the same time.

The core data collections for the reference years 2023 and 2026 may be carried out using samples. Where this happens, EU countries must ensure that the weighted results are statistically representative of agricultural holdings within each region and are designed to meet the precision requirements set out in Annex V.

EU budgetary contribution

The EU will contribute €40 million in grants to the national statistical institutes to help implement the programme of data collection for the reference year 2020. The amount for the period after 2020 will be fixed by the European Parliament and the Council on a proposal from the Commission.

Delegation of powers

The regulation grants the European Commission the power to adopt delegated acts to take into account emerging data needs arising from developments in agriculture, revised legislation and changing policy priorities. In this regard, it receives guidance from experts designated by each of the EU countries.

FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

It has applied since 27 August 2018.

BACKGROUND

An evaluation of the European agricultural statistics system concluded that although the main users of EU agricultural statistics were quite satisfied with the level of detail and quality of EU agricultural statistics, there was a lack of data on specific items, and the system was not harmonised enough and too rigid, not allowing the rapid introduction of new data collections. This new regulation addresses these concerns.

For more information, see:

• Strategy for agricultural statistics for 2020 and beyond (Eurostat).

KEY TERMS

MAIN DOCUMENT

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 1337/2011 (OJ L 200, 7.8.2018, pp. 1-29)

RELATED DOCUMENTS

Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on the financing, management and monitoring of the common agricultural policy and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 352/78, (EC) No 165/94, (EC) No 2799/98, (EC) No 814/2000, (EC) No 1290/2005 and (EC) No 485/2008 (OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, pp. 549-607)

Successive amendments to Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 have been incorporated into the original document. The consolidated version is of documentary value only.

Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007 (OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, pp. 671-854)

See consolidated version.

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, pp. 164-173)

See consolidated version.

Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 of 28 June 2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 (OJ L 189, 20.7.2007, pp. 1-23)

See consolidated version.

Council Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 of 17 December 2003 establishing a system for the identification and registration of ovine and caprine animals and amending Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and Directives 92/102/EEC and 64/432/EEC (OJ L 5, 9.1.2004, pp. 8-17)

See consolidated version.

Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 July 2000 establishing a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 820/97 (OJ L 204, 11.8.2000, pp. 1-10)

See consolidated version.

last update 11.01.2019