Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008 on farm structure surveys and the survey on agricultural production methods, as regards the financial framework for the period 2014-2018

This initiative aims to secure financing for the 2016 Farm Structure Survey and related projects. Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008 on farm structure surveys and the survey on agricultural production methods requires Farm Structure Surveys (FSS) to be carried out in the form of an agricultural census in 2010 and as sample surveys in 2013 and 2016. It also requires a survey on agricultural production methods to be carried out in 2010 or 2011.

The Member States and the Commission need considerable funding to carry out these surveys. According to the Regulation, the EU can cover a maximum of 75% of a Member State’s costs of carrying them out. The maximum amounts that the reimbursements are capped at are defined per country. Since the surveys are spread out over two multi-annual financial framework periods, it was not possible to fix their entire financing at the same time. Under Article 14 of Regulation 1166/2008, the budgetary and legislative authority must fix the financial framework for FSS 2016 on a proposal from the Commission and based on the new financial framework for the period starting in 2014.

Moreover, the accession of Croatia to the European Union must be taken into account. This means that the Regulation needs to be amended also to include the maximum contribution to Croatia.

The European Statistical System (ESS) strategy states that, the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) should have an advisory role and assist the Commission in exercising its implementing powers. This means that the Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics should be replaced by the ESSC for comitology procedures.

This proposal updates Regulation 1166/2008 as follows:
(i) establishes the financial framework 2014-18;
(ii) sets out the EU’s maximum financial contribution to Croatia’s costs of carrying out the FSS; and
(iii) changes the committee that assists the Commission.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)757: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:757:FIN

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