Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2021)37 - Statistics on agricultural input and output - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2021)37 - Statistics on agricultural input and output. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2021)37  |
| date | 02-02-2021 |
1. CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL
• Reasons for and objectives of the proposal
Eurostat has compiled European agricultural statistics on EU agriculture for decades. Today they cover the following aspects: structure of farms, economic accounts for agriculture, animal and crop production, organic farming, agricultural prices, pesticides, nutrients, and other agri-environmental aspects. The main aim is to monitor and evaluate the common agricultural policy (CAP) and other important EU policies, and to support policy-making.
These data collections were evaluated in 2016 1 and were found to be in need of an update to take account of the changes in agriculture, the CAP and other related EU policies. The ‘strategy for agricultural statistics for 2020 and beyond’ 2 is a major programme to modernise European Union agricultural statistics undertaken by the European Commission in close cooperation with Member States. Supported by the European Statistical System Committee, the strategy is part of the regulatory fitness and performance programme (REFIT), and aims to streamline and improve the European agricultural statistics system (EASS). The strategy also follows international recommendations such as the guidelines for reporting greenhouse gas emissions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the standards of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the strategy also implements the UN Global Strategy to improve agricultural and rural statistics.
Economically speaking, agriculture is a relatively small sector, but it covers almost half of the land area of the EU and supplies most of its food, ensuring both food safety and food security. It has a large impact on climate change and the environment, and many rural communities depend on agriculture. The EU needs information on agriculture that is as accurate as possible and that enables it to design policies that benefit all the citizens of the European Union and to allocate the substantial budget of the CAP and related measures most efficiently and effectively across multiple dimensions. Furthermore, agriculture is at the heart of the European Green Deal, in particular its ‘farm to fork strategy’.
Ensuring that EU inhabitants have secure access to enough food of high quality at all times is of the highest importance. This means that regular statistics have to be available on the areas and production of various crops and on the animals and derived products. Agriculture also has an impact on the environment. This cannot be assessed without information on the input of nutrients and plant protection products. The performance of the agricultural sector as a whole can be assessed by statistics on the prices of agricultural inputs and outputs. Agriculture helps to maintain rural areas and landscapes across the EU and keep the rural economy alive by creating jobs in companies providing goods and services for the sector, in agri-food industries and associated sectors. Agricultural statistics therefore have to cover the economic, environmental and social dimensions of agriculture.
Eurostat has provided statistics on crops and animals since the 1950s and has subsequently added statistics on agricultural prices, statistics on the structure of farms and statistics on nutrients and plant protection products. These statistics have been regulated in frequently updated European legislation or through gentlemen’s agreements and European Statistical System (ESS) agreements. The evaluation of the present agricultural statistics system strongly recommended taking a systematic approach across the whole agricultural statistics system.
The most feasible of the options analysed in the impact assessment and subsequently proposed as the way forward was that all agricultural statistics should be covered by three regulations of the European Parliament and of the Council on:
·farm-level data with micro-data transmission, based on a modular approach with core variables, modules and satellites,
·economic accounts for agriculture, and
·aggregated agricultural input/output statistics with tabular data.
The first regulation, the Regulation on Integrated Farm Statistics (IFS) was adopted in 2018 3 , while the second regulation, the Regulation on the Economic Accounts for Agriculture (EAA) 4 , is currently undergoing a modernisation process.
The third regulation is the current legislative proposal on statistics on agricultural input and output (SAIO).
• Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area
For policymakers, businesses and the general public to be able to take appropriate evidence-based decisions, statistics have to be reliable and of high quality.
Contents
·produce high-quality statistics that meet users' needs efficiently and effectively; and
·improve the harmonisation and coherence of European agricultural statistics.
This proposal directly address these objectives.
• Consistency with other Union policies
To provide quality statistics in support of European policies is the main driver of the 2013–2017 European statistical programme 5 (extended to 2018-2020 6 ). Environmental and agricultural statistics are one of the three pillars of statistical production under that programme. Among the relevant objectives of the programme is ‘the review and simplification of the agricultural data collection in line with the post-2013 CAP review and the redesign of the agricultural data collection processes, in particular with the objective of improving the quality and timeliness of the data’. This initiative implements that objective.
By providing better data for assessing the sustainability of the sector for environment, people, regions and economy, the European Agricultural Statistics System will also contribute to at least two of the six priorities of the von der Leyen Commission, namely:
·a European Green Deal with the underlying farm to fork and biodiversity strategies
·an economy that works for people.
. Agricultural statistics are also useful for other Union or Member State priorities affecting or affected by agriculture and rural development.
Beyond this, the proposal for a single market programme 7 currently under interinstitutional discussion provides a framework for financing the development, production and dissemination of European statistics. The implementation of Union policies requires high quality, comparable and reliable statistical information on the economic, social, territorial and environmental situation in the Union. Additionally, European statistics allow European citizens to understand and to participate in the democratic process and debate about the present state and future of the Union. Regarding agricultural statistics, the focus is on providing timely and relevant data for the needs of the common agricultural policy, the common fisheries policy, and policies related to the environment, food security and animal welfare.
Agricultural statistics provide high-quality statistical evidence for implementing and monitoring the CAP. The CAP is an important driver for jobs and smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in the Union. Rural development policy, being an integral part of the CAP and on top of its social objectives, aims to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of agricultural production. The CAP represents more than 37% of the Union’s total budget in the context of the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework (MFF).
Agricultural statistics are also increasingly needed for other key Union policies such as the European Green Deal, environmental and climate change policies, trade policy, social policy, regional policy, etc.
2. LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY
• Legal basis
Article 338 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) provides the legal basis for European statistics. Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, the European Parliament and the Council adopt measures for production statistics where such statistics are necessary for the Union to carry out its role. Article 338 sets out the requirements for producing European statistics, stating that they must conform to standards of impartiality, reliability, objectivity, scientific independence, cost-effectiveness and statistical confidentiality.
The legal basis for the quality reports is Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council 8 .
• Subsidiarity (for non-exclusive competence)
The subsidiarity principle applies if the proposal does not fall within the exclusive competence of the Union. The ESS provides an infrastructure for statistical information. The system is designed to meet the needs of multiple users for decision-making in democratic societies. The proposal for this regulation has been drafted to protect core activities of ESS partners while better ensuring the quality and comparability of agricultural statistics.
One of the main criteria that the statistical data must meet is to be consistent and comparable. Member States cannot achieve the necessary consistency and comparability without a clear European framework, that is to say Union legislation laying down the common statistical concepts, reporting formats and quality requirements.
The comparability requirement is very important for agricultural statistics because of the CAP. The objective of the proposed action cannot be achieved satisfactorily by Member States acting independently. Action can be taken more effectively at Union level, based on a Union legal act ensuring the comparability of statistical information in the statistical domains covered by the proposed act. The data collection itself, meanwhile, can be carried out by the Member States.
• Proportionality
It will ensure the quality and comparability of European agricultural statistics collected and compiled by applying the same principles across Member States. Similarly, it will ensure that European agricultural statistics remain relevant and are adapted to respond to user needs. The Regulation will make the production of statistics more cost-effective while respecting the specific characteristics of Member States' systems.
In accordance with the principle of proportionality, the proposed regulation confines itself to the minimum required to achieve its objective and does not go beyond what is necessary for that purpose.
• Choice of the instrument
Proposed instrument: a regulation.
Given the objectives and content of the proposal, a regulation is the most appropriate instrument. Important common EU policies such as the CAP inherently depend on comparable, harmonised and high-quality agricultural statistics at European level. These can best be ensured by regulations, which are directly applicable in Member States and do not need to be transposed into national law first.
3. RESULTS OF EX-POST EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
• Ex-post evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation
The evaluation of the European agricultural statistics system for the strategy for agricultural statistics for 2020 and beyond indicated the need for a more systematic approach across the domain.
·the current legislation on agricultural statistics does not adequately serve new and emerging data needs because their provision is not included in that legislation. Moreover, the legal acts are not flexible and integrated enough to respond to new needs in a timely manner;
·the EASS is not sufficiently flexible and is not reacting quickly enough to emerging needs, partly due to the inherent functioning of statistics, partly due to the way the regulations have been set up, but also because of a lack of budget and human resources;
·the data collections are not harmonised and coherent to a satisfactory degree because new data needs are emerging, legislation has been developed separately over many years, and there are sometimes different definitions and concepts in different agricultural areas;
·the statistics could be produced more efficiently if the legislation were adapted to enable various sources of information to be used and if Member States adapted to modern technology.
A public consultation was carried out for the evaluation, and the results are detailed in a separate report 9 .
The subsequent strategy on agricultural statistics concluded that agricultural statistics need to be designed and function as a system, where the parts fit together and make the output more significant than their sum. In addition, agricultural statistics need to fit seamlessly into the entire ESS. The data sources need to be diversified. Other sources for data must be used where possible; ICT and other new technologies (e.g. big data, researched-based innovations) have to be integrated; the effectiveness and efficiency of data collection methods must be assessed against the data needs and the quality criteria, and the existing stovepipes should be removed.
• Stakeholder consultations
Eurostat develops, produces and disseminates European agricultural statistics through close, coordinated and regular cooperation in the ESS, building upon a long partnership with the national statistical institutes (NSIs) and other relevant authorities.
At an overall level and with reference to the ‘Strategy for Agricultural Statistics for 2020 and beyond’, the main categories of stakeholders of European agricultural statistics are data producers (NSIs and other national authorities as well as Eurostat), respondents (farmers, farmers' organisations and businesses) and users (researchers, journalists and public and private decision makers, of which other Commission departments in particular. These stakeholders have been consulted extensively on problems and desired changes in the status quo, their data needs and priorities, possible policy options to solve the problems, impacts of suggested actions and the formulation of the strategy specifically. The main fora for these consultations have been (i) the meetings and seminars of the Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics (CPSA) and its successor, the Directors' Group for Agricultural Statistics (DGAS) (composed of directors of agricultural statistics of NSIs) where Commission departments, international organisations, and farmers' organisations are often heard, (ii) the meetings of the European Statistical System Committee (composed of the directors-general of the NSI), and (iii) regularly scheduled consultations and hearings within the Commission departments. In addition, a roadmap for the SAIO proposal was published on the European Commission’s ‘Have your say’ platform for 4 weeks of public feedback.
The results of all these consultations were taken into account in the evaluation mentioned above and throughout the proposal’s development.
• Collection and use of expertise
Eurostat has held extensive discussions on the content of the proposal with NSIs via specific task forces as well as via existing expert groups including at directors’ level.
The proposal was also presented to the European Statistical System Committee in October 2020.
• Impact assessment
An impact assessment of the strategy for agricultural statistics for 2020 and beyond 10 , of which SAIO is part, received a positive opinion from the Regulatory Scrutiny Board 11 .
This impact assessment was undertaken at the strategy level because of the systematic approach across the whole agricultural statistics system to ensure that all parts fit together.
baseline – No EU action on agricultural structural data : this option would leave the collection of the data to Member States, resulting in a patchwork of different approaches and qualities.
prolongation of Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008: this option would continue the status quo.
single legal framework for all agricultural statistics: this option would integrate the collection of all agricultural statistics data in a single new framework regulation.
two-step integration of agricultural statistics: this option would preserve the advantages of option 3 while increasing flexibility and reducing time pressure by creating two new framework regulations in two distinctive stages.
The preferred choice was option 4, as it offered the best way to achieve the objectives.
The impact assessment found that the EASS should, as a preferred option, ultimately be covered by three regulations. Two of these regulations would be new and would replace several older EU regulations on agricultural statistics. The first of these, Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 on integrated farm statistics (IFS), which covers data on farm structure, orchards and vineyards, was adopted in 2018. The second is the present proposal for a regulation on statistics on agricultural input and output (SAIO) which covers inputs to and outputs of the agricultural sector: agricultural production (crops and animals) including organic farming, agricultural prices, nutrients and plant protection products. The third regulation, as referred to in the impact assessment, will concern an amendment to Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 on the economic accounts for agriculture (EAA). Because the EAA are a satellite account of the national accounts and macroeconomic by nature, their integration into the new framework regulations was not proposed. Instead, it was proposed that they remain subject to independent legislation, as has been the case since the EAA Regulation first came into force in 2004, and that they be modernised simultaneously with the development of SAIO.
Statistical legislation is primarily administrative legislation affecting data users (mainly Commission departments working on policies), data producers (NSIs), and data respondents (farmers). Therefore, its direct economic, social and environmental effects are limited. The main direct costs for stakeholders relate to adapting to new statistical and technical systems. In the mid to long term, the modernisation actions were expected to lead to a slightly lower burden and to cost savings. Most of the savings would come from the lowered coverage requirements of Regulation (EU) 2018/1091. The costs of statistics must be weighed against their societal benefits but must also be weighed against the cost of not having statistics, or of only having low-quality statistics.
• Regulatory fitness and simplification
The proposal is part of the strategy for agricultural statistics for 2020 and beyond, a major programme to modernise European Union agricultural statistics undertaken by the European Commission in close cooperation with the EU Member States. In particular, the strategy aims to streamline and improve the EASS; it is also supported by the European Statistical System Committee and is part of the regulatory fitness and performance programme (REFIT), aiming to streamline and improve the EASS.
Agricultural statistics are presently based on several different pieces of legislation and agreements. These should all be brought together to create a systematic approach. This will simplify the systems used to collect statistical data. There are also plans to allow various data sources to be used, including remote sensing, thus diminishing the burden for respondents.
This proposal covers aggregated agricultural production (crops and animals) including organic farming, agricultural prices, nutrients and plant protection products. They deal with agricultural inputs (prices of seeds, pesticides, feed etc.) and outputs (crop and animal production and prices). The data can be collected from farms, administrative sources, intermediaries (dairies etc.), wholesale entities and market organisations, and often include a certain amount of expert estimations. The introduction of a coherent framework will notably allow for the development of an integrated legal architecture, as well as better planning and coherence of the surveys and other data collections.
• Fundamental rights
The proposal has no consequences for the protection of fundamental rights.
4. BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS
The financial impact of the proposal is of unlimited duration. The proposal does not include funding regular data collections, but it provides for Union co-funding of ad hoc data collections, the timing of which is not known. The first ad hoc data collections could be expected at the earliest 2 years after the planned regulation enters into force. As these data collections are not known in advance, no information on their budgetary implications can be given. Once such ad-hoc data collections are required, the costs involved will be evaluated and further detailed along the drafting of the delegated and implementing acts and in any case will be covered by the appropriations allocated to the financial envelopes of relevant programmes included in the EU Budget.
5. OTHER ELEMENTS
• Implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangements
The proposed regulation is expected to be adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in 2022, with the Commission’s implementing measures to be adopted shortly after that. The regulation will be directly applicable in all EU Member States without any need for an implementation plan.
Member States are expected to start providing data to the Commission under the new regulation in 2023.
The proposed legislative instrument is part of the EASS, which will be subject to regular evaluations in order to assess, among other things, how effective and efficient it has been in achieving the objectives and to decide on whether new measures or amendments are needed.
• Compliance monitoring of the statistics produced
Eurostat conducts regular compliance assessments. Those assessments include a review of the availability, quality and punctuality of the data and follow-up actions in case of non-compliance.
In accordance with the requirements of Union legislation, Member States are requested to provide the Commission with relevant figures on agricultural statistics. Those figures are subject to strict transmission deadlines, which must be respected for the good management, dissemination and usefulness of European statistics, as missing or incomplete data lead to shortcomings in the availability of information (that is to say, it is not possible to calculate Union aggregates and to publish data according to planned time schedules).
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 constitutes the basic legal framework for the functioning of the European statistical system and for all sectoral legislation for the production of European statistics.
While timeliness, punctuality and completeness are already important factors in the context of compliance assessments to ensure a timely dissemination of agriculture statistics, more attention will be paid to those and other quality dimensions in order to ensure confidence in the statistics produced by Eurostat and the ESS.
• Continuous improvement of the EASS: identification of new data needs and new data sources, improvement of coherence, reduction of burden
At present, Eurostat conducts annual hearings with other Commission departments. An important point for these hearings is the exchange of information on the respective work programmes. They provide a formal platform for stating upcoming needs for new statistics and for reviewing the usefulness of the available statistics.
Further collaboration with other Commission departments, NSIs and other national authorities will take place at different hierarchical levels in regular meetings and seminars of Expert Groups, in meetings of the Directors' Group and of the ESSC, and through frequent bilateral exchanges. Particular attention will be paid to identifying administrative data and other sources of information maintained under Union legislation and assessing their suitability for the production of statistics in order to establish agreements for their stability, accessibility and eventual adaptation to fit statistical requirements better. Furthermore, periodic surveys and analyses will be conducted to identify any potential for improving European agricultural statistics and for reducing the burden.
Those adjustments and the overall functioning of the legal framework will be monitored and evaluated in particular against the strategy objectives listed earlier.
• Triennial monitoring reports
In order to monitor the functioning of the renewed EASS and to ensure that it achieves the REFIT goals of simplification and burden reduction, a regular reporting on the functioning of the overall system will be carried out every 3 years.
• Evaluation
The second triennial monitoring report will be replaced by a retrospective evaluation of the renewed EASS, conducted according to the Commission's evaluation guidelines. It could also constitute a basis for further revisions of the legislation, if deemed necessary.
• Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal
The proposed regulation specifies the contents of statistics on inputs and outputs in agriculture. It specifies that Member States must provide statistics on 4 domains and 12 related topics. The domains are animal production statistics, crop production statistics, agricultural price statistics, and statistics on nutrients and plant protection products. This is supported by articles related to subject matter, definitions, statistical population and observation units, coverage, data transmission frequency, data sources and methods, reference periods, quality specifications, and potential financial contributions. In addition, the regulation provides the possibility of introducing specific ad hoc subjects related to agricultural input and output that supplement the data collected on a regular basis.
The detailed data sets will be specified in implementing acts (regulations).