Brussels, 29 November 2021
Today the Council and the Parliament agreed to update the way regional farming statistics are reported in the EU. The move comes as part of efforts to modernise Europe’s agricultural statistics system to bring it in line with developments in the sector, including the reformed common agricultural policy.
The new regulation amends the existing legislation on economic accounts for agriculture by formalising the requirement for member states to report regional agricultural data to the Commission. The rules will take effect from 2023 at the earliest and will contribute to better reporting under the new common agricultural policy (CAP).
The Council’s negotiations with the Parliament were led by the chair of the Special Committee on Agriculture, Simona Vrevc, on behalf of the Slovenian presidency.
Today’s agreement marks an important step forward in our efforts to modernise the European agricultural statistics system, thus improving the quantity and quality of data available for policy making, administration and research. We firmly believe that this regional data will also contribute to a more targeted and effective implementation of the CAP. – Simona Vrevc, chair of the Special Committee on Agriculture
Background
In November 2015 Eurostat published its strategy for agricultural statistics for 2020 and beyond. This strategy called for the EU’s agricultural statistics system to be updated to bring it in line with changes to farming policy, as well as to reflect changes in the agricultural sector as a result of factors such as globalisation and climate change.
Following an impact assessment of the strategy, the Commission proposed to modernise farming statistics in Europe by introducing new regulations on integrated farm statistics (IFS) and agricultural input and output statistics (SAIO). The Commission’s assessment also highlighted the need to update the existing regulation on economic accounts for agriculture (EAA) so as to formalise the collection of regional data; up to that point such data had been shared on the basis of an informal ‘gentleman’s agreement’.
Although the obligation to report regional statistics will be in place as of 2023, member states will be able to apply for a derogation in duly justified circumstances. The new regulation also provides for updates to the rules on quality reporting standards to bring them in line with current EU requirements.
Next steps
The political agreement will be approved by the Council’s Special Committee on Agriculture. It will then be formally adopted by both the Parliament and the Council following legal and linguistic review.