Agricultural statistics: permanent crops

The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development adopted the report drafted by Mariya NEDELCHEVA (EPP, BG) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning European statistics on permanent crops.

It recommends that the European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading, under the ordinary legislative procedure, amends the Commission proposal as follows:

List of permanent crops: Members consider that the list of permanent crops to which this Regulation applies constitutes an essential element (scope), which should be defined in the articles of the legislative act and should not be subject to amendment by delegated acts.

Coverage: with a view to reducing the administrative burden placed on small holdings, Members propose to amend the precision requirements, to exclude all small holdings of less than 0.2 hectares from the scope of the provisions and no longer requiring a breakdown by NUTS 3 region to be given for certain data on vines for purposes other than for the production of table grapes. The statistics on areas under vines should be compiled solely on the basis of the data available in the vineyard register.

Reference year: the report states that the statistics provided shall refer to the planted area after the usual planting period.

Transmission to the Commission: the existing deadlines for the transmission of data have been proved satisfactory in practice. However, the Commission proposed to bring this date to 31 July 2013 following the reference year, Members suggest retaining 31 September 2013 in the new Regulation.

By 30 September 2016, and every five years thereafter, Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with reports on the quality of the data transmitted and the methods used for the statistics on the crops.

Delegated acts:Members propose a series of amendments relating to delegated acts. The objectives, content, scope and duration of the delegation of power pursuant to Article 290 TFEU must be explicitly and meticulously defined in each basic act. The wording used is based on the Common Understanding agreed by the legal services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission and approved by the Conference of Committee Chairs at its meeting of 15 February 2011.