The European Parliament adopted by 568 votes to 18, with 21 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1217/2009 as regards conversion of the Farm Accountancy Data Network into a Farm Sustainability Data Network.

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

Creation of a farm sustainability data network

To meet the needs of the common agricultural policy (CAP), including the evaluation of its impact on the agricultural sector, a farm sustainability data network (FSDN) is set up for the collection and analysis of farm-level sustainability data covering the economic, environmental and social dimensions . FSDN data may be used to contribute to the assessment of additional aspects related to the sustainability of Union agriculture and to address challenges faced by Union agriculture.

FSDN data should cover the topics set out in Annex -I to the Regulation. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts to modify those topics or to add new ones.

Data for compiling farm returns and data linkages

Farm returns should be compiled by means of surveys for which Member States may use, where relevant, data from the data sources and other relevant data sources, as well as data compilation methods or innovative approaches for data sharing and compiling.

The liaison agencies should have the right to access and use, free of charge, the following data sources:

- the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) established by Regulation (EU) 2021/2116 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

- the system for the identification and registration of terrestrial animals established by Regulation (EU) 2016/429 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

- the vineyard register implemented in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

- the organic farming registers set up pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

- Member States’ data for performing the monitoring and evaluation of CAP Strategic Plans;

- where relevant, farm-level records collected for the establishment by Member States of action programmes pursuant to Article 5 of Council Directive 91/676/EEC.

In addition to the data contained in the farm return for returning holdings, Member States should provide the means for the Commission to enhance the capacity to analyse sustainability matters by complementing farm return data with content from data for performing the monitoring and evaluation of CAP Strategic Plans or Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) established by Regulation (EU) 2021/2116 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Participation in the FSDN

The FSDN should rely on voluntary participation. Nevertheless, given that some Member States face problems with holdings’ participation in the FSDN, it should be possible for Member States to adopt national rules to address that issue without imposing penalties on the farmers. Member States should encourage farmers to participate in the FSDN by using incentives that they should set out in a specific plan.

Liaison Agency

Each Member State should appoint a liaison agency whose tasks should be to:

- offer to any returning holding the possibility to obtain its results, either from the liaison agency or from an organisation it appoints, as soon as possible but in any event no later than four months after the Commission confirms that the farm return is duly completed; where possible, those results shall include benchmarking information, comparing those results with regional, national, Union or sectoral averages;

- set out a plan to incentivise farmers´ participation in the FSDN and submit it to the Commission together with the plan for the selection of returning holdings;

- make available, either by itself or by an organisation it appoints, the obtained results in the form of aggregated and anonymised data such as at regional, national, Union or sectoral level.

Data protection

The farm returns and either the links or the data referred to in Regulation should be submitted to the Commission by the liaison agency by means of a computerised data system established by the Commission. The data should be submitted electronically on the basis of forms made available to the liaison agency through that system.

In order to increase the level of acceptance of farmers to participate in the data gathering and to protect individual data from unauthorised or unsuitable use, it is necessary to clarify that individual data should only be used for analytical purposes linked to the CAP objectives and the sustainability of Union agriculture and, where Member States so decide, for statistical purposes. Any other use of the individual data by the Member States or by the Commission, in particular for controls in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/2116 or for taxation purposes, should be prohibited.

Where FSDN data and data from other datasets are shared by the Commission or liaison agencies, it is of the utmost importance to ensure data protection and to give assurance to farmers, both natural and legal persons, that their individual data and all other individual details obtained pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1217/2009 as amended by this Regulation will be anonymised to avoid their identification. Therefore, the amended text specifies that FSDN data and data from other datasets may be made public provided that they are both aggregated and anonymised.

The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development adopted the report by Jérémy DECERLE (Renew Europe, FR) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1217/2009 as regards conversion of the Farm Accountancy Data Network into a Farm Sustainability Data Network.

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:

Creation of a Community farm accounting data network

The purpose of the data network should be to contribute to the evaluation of whether the objectives of the common agricultural policy are being met and to evaluate the impact of future policies on the agricultural sector.

Members proposed adding an extra dimension to the proposed Regulation. They suggested that an environmental and social strand should be added to the Union farm sustainability data network (‘FSDN’ or ‘data network’). A new Annex - I sets out the economic, environmental and social data categories to be collected. Thes three categories should be the unvarying backbone of the FSDN.

In addition, such data may also be used to provide incentives such as personalised advisory services and feedback to farmers with the aim of facilitating the management of agricultural holdings and of improving the sustainability of agricultural holdings.

Voluntary participation

Considering that most Member States do not face problems with farmers’ participation in the existing FADN and taking into account the wider scope and the increased quantity of data to be collected in the FSDN, the voluntary nature of participation of the farmers in the FSDN should be maintained. When selected as returning holding, farmers should do their best to provide the data. It should be possible for the Member States to adopt national rules to ensure that the data collected is of better quality and to facilitate the collection of the data.

An agricultural holding qualifying as returning holding in the plan for the selection of returning holdings may voluntarily facilitate the collection of the requested data in accordance with national law. To qualify as a returning holding, an agricultural holding should be farmed by a farmer keeping farm accounts or willing and able to keep farm accounts and willing to allow the accountancy data from the agricultural holding to be made available to the Commission.

Liaison agencies

Each Member State should appoint a liaison agency whose duties should be to:

- make available, within two years after the collection of the data, the obtained results for providing updated advice, updated benchmarking and feedback to returning holdings on their sustainability performance and farm management;

- set out a plan for the distribution of incentives granted to farmers under this Regulation.

Delegated acts

The Commission should be empowered to adopt delegated acts on rules fixing thresholds. Those rules should ensure that farms of smaller economic size are inclusively represented. It should also be empowered to adopt delegated acts concerning rules to determine the data to be collected based on the topics listed in Annex - I, and the general rules for data collection. The general rules for data collection should take into account relevant technology advancements and the possibility of collecting data through remote sensing.

PURPOSE: to convert the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) into a Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN).

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: the development of the Union agricultural sector and of the common agricultural policy (CAP) requires objective and relevant information on the performance and sustainability of the Union agricultural holdings. The Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) had been established by Council Regulation (EC) No 1217/2009 .

In the Commission communication of 20 May 2020 entitled ‘A Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system’, the Commission announced its intention to convert the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) into a Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN), with a view to collect farm level data on sustainability. The conversion will also contribute to the improvement of advisory services to farmers and benchmarking of farm performance.

The FADN is a unique source of microeconomic and accountancy data coming every year from more than 80 000 EU farms. It has allowed assessing farms’ economic and financial situations since 1965. The Commission provides the harmonised methodology and the common questionnaire, whereas the Member States collect, verify and submit the data. The FSDN will add to that environmental and social dimension.

CONTENT: the proposed amendment of Regulation (EU) 1217/2009 seeks to convert the FADN into FSDN by:

- extending the scope of the data collection to cover the environmental and social dimension in addition to economic dimension;

- simplifying and modernising the current data set;

- motivating farmers to participate in the data network;

- helping Member States in the data collection process (e.g. interlinks with other relevant databases, providing a contribution for the conversion process).

Based on the well-established FADN data network, the FSDN will be a useful and efficient tool that enables the EU to contribute to the CAP objectives and make available farm level economic, environmental and social data and information for the Member States as well as the EU. Like the FADN, the FSDN will provide a common and harmonised survey to collect farm level data and make data comparable at EU level.

The proposal for this Regulation has been drafted in order to support as well as limit burden for both Member States and farmers, while better ensuring the quality and comparability of the FSDN farm level data.

With respect to the EU budget , the FSDN proposal aims to extend and amend the current scope by:

- differentiating budgets for regular and special surveys,

- allowing financing the setup and modernisation of Member States FSDN data collection systems and their IT adjustments,

- incentivising participation of farms by allowing Member States a different allocation of fees in relation to the standard output value of the holding,

- allowing Member States to set incentives for farmers participation in the data network by providing for example a financial contribution to farmers.

Overall, the 2022 FADN EU budget amounts to EUR 16.7 million. The FSDN budget is planned to increase in order to cover the above-mentioned extensions of the scope. However, as the final amount strongly depends on the shape and details of the secondary legislation, the amount cannot be fully assessed at this stage.