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Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 of 29 February 1988 on the organisation of Community surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings ( 2 ) provides for a programme of Community surveys to provide statistics on the structure of agricultural holdings up to 2007.

The programme of surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings, carried out on a Community basis since 1966/67, should be continued in order to examine trends at Community level. In the interests of clarity, Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 should be replaced by this Regulation.

For the purposes of updating the basic registers of agricultural holdings and the other information required for the stratification of sample surveys, a census of agricultural holdings in the Community is necessary at least every ten years. The last census prior to the adoption of this Regulation took place in 1999/2000.

There is a need to collect data on the implementation of measures associated with rural development, as defined in Council EAFRD of 20 September 2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) ( 3 ) .

In its conclusions of 19 December 2006 on agri-environmental indicators, the Council recognised the need for comparable data on agricultural activities, at the appropriate geographical level, and covering the whole Community. The Council asked the Commission to undertake the measures set out in the Commission Communication of 15 September 2006 ( 4 ) which include the production of statistical data, particularly regarding farm management practices and the use of farm inputs.

There is a lack of statistical information on the different agricultural production methods at the level of individual holdings. Therefore there is a need for improvements to the collection of information on agricultural production methods linked to structural information on agricultural holdings, to provide additional statistics for the development of agri-environmental policy and to improve the quality of agri-environmental indicators.

Comparable statistics from all Member States on the structure of agricultural holdings are important in determining the development of agricultural policy in the Community. Therefore standard classifications and common definitions should be used insofar as possible for survey characteristics.

The implementation of the farm structure survey in 2010 and the decennial population census in 2011 would place a heavy burden on the statistical resources of Member States if the periods of fieldwork for these two major surveys overlapped. A derogation should therefore be provided for in order to enable Member States to implement the farm structure survey in 2009.

Council CSR of 17 February 1997 on Community Statistics ( 5 ) constitutes the reference framework for the provisions of this Regulation in particular as regards conformity to standards of impartiality, reliability, relevance, cost-effectiveness, statistical confidentiality and transparency. Council Regulation (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90 of 11 June 1990 on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities ( 6 ) constitutes a reference framework for the transmission and protection of confidential statistical data provided for under this Regulation, in order to ensure that no unlawful disclosure and non-statistical use take place when Community statistics are produced and disseminated.

The use of the agricultural holding's location by the Commission should be limited to statistical analyses and should exclude drawing samples and carrying out surveys. The necessary protection of confidentiality of data should be ensured, among other means, by limiting the precision of the location parameters and by appropriate aggregation when publishing statistics.

Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 ( 7 ) established the statistical classification of economic activities in the Community.

In accordance with NUTS of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) ( 8 ) , territorial units should be defined in accordance with the NUTS classification.

In order to reduce the burden of data collection for respondents and Member States insofar as possible, the possibility of using sample surveys and administrative sources should be provided for.

In order to carry out the surveys, considerable funding will be required from both the Member States and the Commission over a number of years, a large proportion of which will be used to meet the requirements of the Community.

It is recognised that the requirements of the satellite recognition and identification of agricultural holdings present significant methodological and technical difficulties in many Member States.

Provision should therefore be made for a Community subsidy to assist this programme of surveys through the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund under Council FCAPR of 21 June 2005 on the financing of the common agricultural policy ( 9 ) .

This Regulation establishes a financial envelope for the entire duration of the programme which constitutes the prime reference for the budgetary authority during the annual budgetary procedure, within the meaning of point 37 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management ( 10 ) .

Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the systematic production of Community statistics on the structure of agricultural holdings and on agricultural production methods, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale and effects of this Regulation, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission ( 11 ) .

In particular, the Commission should be empowered to define the coefficients for the livestock units, to define the characteristics and to adapt the Annexes to this Regulation. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, by supplementing it with new non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5(a) of Decision 1999/468/EC.

The Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics set up by Council Decision 72/279/EEC ( 12 ) has been consulted,