Regulation 2022/590 - Amendment of Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 as regards regional economic accounts for agriculture - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 114/1

Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council (2) sets up the European System of Accounts 2010 (‘ESA 2010’) and contains the reference framework of common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules for drawing up the accounts of the Member States for the statistical requirements of the Union.

Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 of the European Parliament and the Council (3) sets up the economic accounts for agriculture (‘EAA’) in the Union by providing for the methodology and the time-limits for the transmission of the agricultural accounts. The EAA are satellite accounts of national accounts, as provided for by ESA 2010, with the purpose of obtaining results that are harmonised and comparable between the Member States in order to draw up the accounts for the purposes of the Union. In 2016, the European Court of Auditors published a special report No 1/2016 entitled ‘Is the Commission’s system for performance measurement in relation to farmers’ incomes well designed and based on sound data?’. That report includes sound and relevant observations and recommendations regarding EAA and Regulation (EC) No 138/2004.

The regional economic accounts for agriculture (‘REAA’) are a regional-level adaptation of the EAA. National figures alone cannot reveal the full and sometimes complex picture of what is happening at a more detailed level. Therefore, regional-level data help to increase the understanding of the diversity that exists between regions, complement information for the Union, the euro area and individual Member States, while responding to the increased need for statistics for accountability, and increase the level of harmonisation, efficiency and consistency regarding Union agricultural statistics. The REAA therefore need to be integrated into Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 in terms of methodology and the transmission programme of data.

Statistics are no longer considered to be just one among many sources of information for policy-making purposes but instead play a central role in the decision-making process. Evidence-based decision-making requires statistics that meet high-quality criteria, as set out in Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4), in accordance with the purposes they are serving.

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. The REAA are also crucial for assessing accurately the contribution of the agricultural sector to the achievement of the European Green Deal, in particular the Farm to Fork Strategy and...