The European Parliament adopted, by 643 votes to 12 with 8 abstentions a legislative resolution amending the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning crop statistics. The amendments were the result of a compromise between Parliament and Council.
The main amendments – adopted in 1st reading of the codecision procedure – are as follows: Purpose of the Regulation: it is clarified that the Regulation establishes a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on agricultural land use and crop production.
Definitions: definitions should not be included as part of the Annex but should be included in the main part of the Regulation, more specifically in the article on definitions.
Variables with a low prevalence: Variables with a low or zero prevalence in a Member State may be excluded from the statistics, provided that the Member State in question informs the Commission of all such crops and of the applicable threshold for low prevalence of each such crop no later than in the calendar year immediately preceding each of the reference periods.
Precision: precision requirements should not be included in a foot-note as part of the Annex but should be included in the main part of the Regulation. However, the compromise text adopts the Commission's figure of 3% for the variation coefficients.
Evaluation of the report's quality: every 3 years, and for the first time 21 months (rather than 18 months) after the date of application of the Regulation, Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with a report on the quality of the data transmitted making reference to the quality assessment dimensions.
Quality report: the quality report, using the quality assessment dimensions referred to in the text, shall describe: (i) the organisation of the survey and the methodology applied; (ii)the level of precision achieved for the sample surveys; (iii)the quality of sources other than surveys which are used.
Transitional period: a full calendar year transitional period for the implementation of the Regulation, lasting not more than two years from 1 January 2010, may be granted to a Member State in accordance with the management procedure in so far as the application of the Regulation to its national statistical system necessitates major adaptations and is likely to cause significant practical problems.
Reduce the burden on respondents: a provision in the text states that where administrative sources are used, Member States shall inform the Commission in advance about methods used and the quality of data from such sources. Furthermore, consideration shall be given to the principle that additional costs and burdens remain within reasonable limits.
Annex: lastly, changes are made to the Annex.