Commission Regulation (EC) No 2139/2004 of 8 December 2004 adapting and implementing Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 and amending Commission Decision 2000/115/EC with a view to the organisation of Community surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings in 2005 and 2007

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2139/2004

of 8 December 2004

adapting and implementing Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 and amending Commission Decision 2000/115/EC with a view to the organisation of Community surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings in 2005 and 2007

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 of 29 February 1988 on the organisation of Community surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings ([^E0001]), and in particular Article 8(1) and (4) thereof and point 5 of Annex II thereto,

Whereas:

• (1) The accession of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic on 1 May 2004 makes it necessary to amend the list of characteristics set out in Annex I to Regulation (EEC) No 571/88.

• (2) The new political goal of achieving a sustainable common agricultural policy calls for more information, especially on rural development.

• (3) In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 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) ([^E0002]), all Member States’ statistics transmitted to the Commission which are broken down by territorial units should use the NUTS classification. Consequently, for the purposes of surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings (hereinafter referred to as the farm structure surveys), the regions and districts should be defined in accordance with the NUTS classification.

• (4) Time limits for the communication of validated individual data from the farm structure surveys should be established by the Commission, taking into account the fact that the timetable for carrying out the survey work differs between Member States.

• (5) Both Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 itself and the decision laying down the definitions and explanations relating to that Regulation, namely Commission Decision 2000/115/EC ([^E0003]), should therefore be amended accordingly.

• (6) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics established by Council Decision 72/279/EEC ([^E0004]),

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Annex I to Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 is replaced by the text shown in Annex I to this Regulation.

Article 2

Decision 2000/115/EC is amended as follows:

• 1.Annex I is amended as shown in Annex II to this Regulation;

• 2.Annex IV is deleted.

Article 3

By way of derogation, for Germany the regions shall be the territorial units NUTS 1 as referred to in that Regulation.

By way of derogation, for Germany the districts are the territorial units NUTS 2 as referred to in that Regulation.

Article 4

The Member States shall communicate validated individual data from the farm structure surveys 2005 and 2007 in accordance with the timetable set out in Annex III to this Regulation.

Article 5

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

ANNEX

‘ANNEX I

LIST OF CHARACTERISTICS FOR 2005 AND 2007 ([^E0005])

Explanatory notes:

• —The characteristics marked with the letters “NE” in the Annex are deemed not to exist or to be close to zero in the respective Member States.

• —The characteristics marked with the letters “NS” are deemed not to be significant in the respective Member States.