The European Parliament adopted by 625 votes 37, with 34 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards regional economic accounts for agriculture.

The proposed amendment to Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 aims at integrating the REAA into the current legal framework for European Economic Accounts for Agriculture (EAA) statistics as regards both the methodology and the appropriate deadlines for data transmission.

The European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure amends the Commission's proposal as follows:

Regional statistical data

The amended text stressed that high-quality statistical regional-level data are a central tool for the implementation, monitoring, evaluation, review and assessment of the economic, environmental and social impact of policies related to agriculture in the Union, in particular the common agricultural policy (‘CAP’), including rural development measures, the CAP´s new delivery model and national Strategic Plans, as well as Union policies relating to, inter alia, the environment, climate change, biodiversity, the circular economy, land use, balanced and sustainable regional development, public health, animal welfare, food safety and security and the United Nations sustainable development goals.

Date of data transmission

The amending Regulation stipulates that the first transmission of data for the regional economic accounts for agriculture at NUTS 2 level within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics will take place no later than 30 September 2023.

Dissemination of statistics

Without prejudice to Regulation (EC) No 1367/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the application of the provisions of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters to Community institutions and bodies and Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European Statistics, the Commission (Eurostat) will disseminate the data transmitted to it online, free of charge.

Quality assessment

The Commission (Eurostat) will assess the quality of the data transmitted. To this end, Member States will transmit a quality report to the Commission (Eurostat), for the first time by 31 December ... [the year starting 1 January following 24 months after the date of entry into force of this amending Regulation], and every five years thereafter, for the data sets transmitted during the reporting period.

The Commission will, by means of implementing acts, define the modalities, structure and indicators for the evaluation of the quality reports. These implementing acts should not impose significant additional costs or burden on Member States.

Derogations

Where the compilation of the REAA requires major adaptations to the national statistical system of a Member State, the Commission may adopt implementing acts to grant derogations to that Member State for a maximum period of two years. However, the first data transmission date for REAA will not be later than 30 September 2025.

The EU may provide financial contributions from the general budget of the Union to the national statistical institutes and other national authorities to cover the costs of implementing the Regulation where the establishment of REAA requires major adaptations to the national statistical system of a Member State.

Transparency

The amended text emphasises that collecting the same information more than once, thus creating redundancy in the data reporting, should be avoided. Details of the specific method and sources shall be set out in full transparency in the quality reports, indicating which regional data have been collected directly and which data are based on national data with regional breakdowns based on assumptions.

The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development adopted the report by Petros KOKKALIS (The Left, EL) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards regional economic accounts for agriculture.

As a reminder, the proposal to amend Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 setting up the economic accounts for agriculture (EAA) in the EU by providing for the methodology and time limits for the transmission of agricultural accounts. The regional economic accounts for agriculture (REAA) are a regional adaptation of the EAA. In addition to national figures, regional data help to better understand the diversity that exists between regions and complement the information for the EU, the euro area and individual Member States. The recognition of the role of regions and regional data in the implementation of the CAP, which represents an important driver for jobs and sustainable economic growth in the Union is increasing. The inclusion of regional data and the tools to achieve better data should be proportionate, taking into consideration the additional administrative workload for farmers.

The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows:

Transmission date

Members proposed that the first transmission of data for the regional economic accounts for agriculture at NUTS 2 level within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 shall take place by 30 September 2022 at the latest (as opposed to the 30 of June as proposed by the Commission).

Dissemination of statistics

The report called for the data transmitted to the Commission (Eurostat) to be actively disseminated by the Commission (Eurostat) online, free of charge, excluding confidential data. Members stressed that the Commission should apply the statistical principle of ‘cost effectiveness’ to minimise the burden on survey respondents .

The EU could provide grants to the national statistical institutes and other national authorities in order to cover the implementation costs of this Regulation when the setting up of regional accounts necessitates the thorough adaptation of data collection systems.

Economic accounts for agriculture

The report highlighted that collecting the same information more than once, thus creating redundancy in the data reporting, should be avoided. Details of the specific method and sources should be set out in full transparency in the quality reports, indicating which regional data have been

collected directly and which data are based on national data with regional breakdowns based on assumptions.

PURPOSE: to amend Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards regional economic accounts for agriculture.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: Eurostat has been compiling European agricultural statistics on agriculture in the European Union for decades. These data collections were evaluated in 2016 and it was found that they needed to be updated to take account of changes in agriculture, the CAP and other related EU policies.

The strategy for agricultural statistics to 2020 and beyond is a major programme for the modernisation of EU agricultural statistics run by the European Commission in close cooperation with Member States.

The proposed changes are based on the following findings:

- Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council sets up the economic accounts for agriculture (EAA) in the EU by providing for the methodology and time limits for the transmission of agricultural accounts. The regional economic accounts for agriculture (REAA) are a regional adaptation of the EAA. In addition to national figures, regional data help to better understand the diversity that exists between regions and complement the information for the EU, the euro area and individual Member States;

- as statistics play a central role in the decision-making process, evidence-based decision-making requires high quality statistics. Quality reports are essential for assessing, improving and communicating the quality of European statistics;

- lastly, the EAA provide important annual macroeconomic data to European policy-makers three times a year. The first and second estimates are followed by the final data. The current transmission deadline for the EAA second estimates does not provide much time after the end of the first reference period to collect improved data compared to the data provided for the first EAA estimates.

CONTENT: the proposal for the amendment of Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 aims to:

- integrate the regional economic accounts for agriculture (REAA) into Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 as regards both the methodology and the appropriate deadlines for data transmission;

- allow possible derogations from the regional economic accounts for agriculture (REAA) requirements;

- add an article to cover quality reporting requirements;

- confer implementing powers on the Commission as regards the arrangements for and the content of the quality reports;

- relax the transmission deadlines for the second EAA estimates in order to facilitate improved data quality.