REPORT on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning meat and livestock statistics

3.4.2008 - (COM(2007)0129 – C6‑0099/2007 – 2007/0051(COD)) - ***I

Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
Rapporteur: Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf

DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning meat and livestock statistics

(COM(2007)0129 – C6‑0099/2007 – 2007/0051(COD))

(Codecision procedure: first reading)

The European Parliament,

–   having regard to the Commission proposal to the European Parliament and the Council (COM(2007)0129)[1],

–   having regard to Article 251(2) and Article 285(1) of the EC Treaty, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C6‑0099/2007),

–   having regard to Rule 51 of its Rules of Procedure,

–   having regard to the report of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (A6‑0130/2008),

1.  Approves the Commission proposal as amended;

2.  Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it intends to amend the proposal substantially or replace it with another text;

3.  Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council and Commission.

Text proposed by the Commission	Amendments by Parliament
Amendment 1 Recital 4 a (new)
	(4a) In order to limit the burden on Member States, the regional data requirements should not exceed the requirements under previous legislation (unless new regional levels have appeared in the meantime) and regional data should be optional when the regional livestock is below certain thresholds.
Justification
This amendment is tabled in order to allow a first reading agreement with the Council. The same applies to all amendments proposed by the rapporteur to which no specific justification is given.
Amendment 2 Recital 5 a (new)
	(5a) In order to ensure a smooth transition from the regime applicable under Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93/25/EEC, the Regulation should allow a transitional period of up to one year and, in the case of sheep, up to two years, to be granted to Member States where the application of this Regulation to their national statistical systems would require major adaptations and would be likely to cause significant practical problems.
Amendment 3 Recital 9
(9) In particular, powers should be conferred on the Commission to define the conditions under which it adopts the content of quality reports and adapts the Annexes. Since such measures are of general scope and are intended to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation or to supplement it by adding new non-essential elements, they should be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny under Article 5a of Council Decision 1999/468/EC,	(9) In particular, the Commission should be empowered to modify Annexes I, II, IV and V. Since such measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia by supplementing it with new non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC,
Amendment 4 Article 2
The definitions for the purpose of the present Regulation are set out in Annex I to this Regulation.	For the purposes of this Regulation the following definitions shall apply:
	1. 'agricultural holding' means an agricultural holding as defined in Article 5(a) of Regulation (EEC) No 571/88;
	2. 'sample survey' means a sample survey as defined in the second indent of Article 2 of Regulation (EEC) No 571/88;
	3. 'pig' means a domestic animal of the subspecies Sus scrofa domesticus;
	4. 'bovine animal' means a domestic animal of the species Bos Taurus and Bubalus bubalus, including hybrids like Beefalo;
	5. 'sheep' means a domestic animal of the species Ovis aries;
	6. 'goat' means a domestic animal of the subspecies Capra aegagrus hircus;
	7. 'poultry' means in particular domestic birds of the species Gallus gallus (chickens), Meleagris sp.(turkeys), Anas sp. and Cairina moschata (ducks) and Anser anser dom (geese). It may include among others domestic birds of the species Coturnix sp. (quails), Phasianus sp. (pheasants), Numida meleadgris dom (guinea-fowl), Colombinae sp. (pigeons), and Struthio camelus (ostriches). It shall, however, exclude birds raised in confinement for hunting purposes and not for producing meat.
	8. 'slaughterhouse' means an officially registered and approved establishment used for slaughtering and dressing animals of which the meat is intended for human consumption.
	Other definitions for the purpose of this Regulation are set out in Annex I.
Justification
The terminology used should be in line with the internationally agreed zoological nomenclature. The species Cairina moschata (Moscovy duck/Canard de Barbarie) should be included in the definition of the term "poultry".
Amendment 5 Section I, titre (avant article 3) (nouveau)
SECTION I	SECTION I
	LIVESTOCK STATISTICS
Justification
Technical amendment suggested by the Council Presidency in order to reach a first reading agreement.
Amendment 6 Article 6, titre
Article 6	Article 6
Precision requirements	Precision
Justification
Technical amendment suggested by the Council Presidency in order to reach a first reading agreement
Amendment 7 Article 6, paragraph 2
(2) Member States may be allowed by the Commission to use sources other than surveys in duly justified cases.	(2) In case of use of administrative sources, Member States shall inform the Commission in advance about methods used and the quality of data.
Amendment 8 Article 6, paragraph 3
(3) In case of sources other than surveys, the Member States will ensure that the precision is at least equal to the precision required in the case of surveys.	(3) In case of sources other than surveys, the Member States will ensure this information is of at least equal quality to information obtained from statistical surveys.
Amendment 9 Article 7, paragraph 2, indent 2
- 1 April of the following year for the November/December statistics.	- 15 May of the following year for the November/December statistics.
Amendment 10 Article 8
The November/December statistics shall be broken down by the NUTS 2 territorial units defined in Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003. By exception they may be provided only by NUTS 1 territorial units for Germany and United Kingdom.	The November/December statistics shall be broken down by the NUTS 1 and NUTS 2 territorial units defined in Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003. By exception they may be provided only by NUTS 1 territorial units for Germany and United Kingdom. They are optional for territorial units having less than 150 000 pigs, 75 000 bovine animals, 100 000 sheep and 25 000 goats if these territorial units summed up together contribute with 5% or less to the national population of the relevant species.
Amendment 11 Article 9
The Member States shall produce statistics relating to the number and carcass weight of pigs, bovine animals, sheep, goats and poultry slaughtered in the slaughterhouses on their territory, the meat of which is deemed fit for human consumption. They shall also supply estimates of slaughterings outside slaughterhouses, so that the statistics include all the pigs, bovine animals, sheep, goats and poultry slaughtered on their territory.	The Member States shall produce statistics relating to the number and carcass weight of pigs, bovine animals, sheep, goats and poultry slaughtered in the slaughterhouses on their territory, the meat of which is deemed fit for human consumption. They shall also supply estimates of slaughterings outside slaughterhouses, so that the statistics include all the pigs, bovine animals, sheep and goats slaughtered on their territory.
Amendment 12 Article 12
Member States shall inform the Commission of the slaughtering statistics within 60 days following the reference period.	Member States shall inform the Commission of the statistics:
	- for slaughtering in slaughterhouses within 60 days following the reference period;
	- for slaughtering outside slaughterhouses before 30 June of the following year.
Amendment 13 Article 14, paragraph 1
(1) The forecasts for pig and bovine animals shall be produced twice a year by each Member State.	(1) The forecasts for pigs shall be produced twice a year by each Member State. Member States with a pig population of less than 3 million head may produce these statistics only once a year.
Amendment 14 Article 14, paragraph 1 a (new)
	(1a) The forecasts for bovine animals shall be produced twice a year by each Member State. Member States with a bovine population of less than 1.5 million head may produce these statistics only once a year.

Amendment 15

Article 14, paragraph 4

(4) The forecasts shall cover four quarters for pigs, three semesters for bovine animals and two semesters for sheep and goats.	(4) The forecasts shall cover:
	- four quarters for pigs and three semesters for bovine animals for Member States that produce forecasts twice a year;
	- six quarters for pigs and four semesters for bovine animals for Member States that produce forecasts once a year;
	- two semesters for sheep and goats.

Amendment 16 Article 16, introductory part
Member States shall inform the Commission of the meat production forecasts before:	Member States shall inform the Commission of the meat production forecasts:
Amendment 17 Article 16, indent 1
- 15 February for forecasts from January to the end of the fourth quarter of the current year for pigs, to the end of the first semester of the following year for bovine animals and to the end of the second semester of the current year for sheep and goats;	- before 15 February for forecasts for pigs from the beginning of the first quarter to the end of the fourth quarter of the current year and before 15 September for forecasts from the beginning of the third quarter of the current year to the end of the second quarter of the following year, for Member States that produce forecasts twice a year;
Amendment 18 Article 16, indent 2
- 15 September for forecasts from July of the current year to the end of the second quarter of the following year for pigs and to the end of the second semester of the following year for bovine animals.	deleted
Amendment 19 Article 16, indent 2 a (new)
	- before 15 February for forecasts for pigs from the beginning of the first quarter of the current year to the end of the second quarter of the following year, for Member States that produce forecasts once a year;
Amendment 20 Article 16, indent 2 b (new)
	- before 15 February for forecasts for bovine animals from the beginning of the first semester of the current year to the end of the first semester of the following year and before 15 September for forecasts from the beginning of the second semester of the current year to the end of the second semester of the following year, for Member States that produce forecasts twice a year;
Amendment 21 Article 16, indent 2 c (new)
	- before 15 February for forecasts for bovine animals from the beginning of the first semester of the current year to the end of the second semester of the following year, for Member States that produce forecasts once a year;
Amendment 22 Article 16, indent 2 d (new)
	- before 15 February for forecasts from the beginning of the first semester of the current year to the end of the second semester of the current year for sheep and goats.
Amendment 23 Article 17, Title
Reports	Quality assessment and reports
Amendment 24 Article 17, paragraph -1 (new)
	(-1) For the purpose of this Regulation, the following quality assessment dimensions shall apply to the data to be transmitted:
	(a) 'relevance' refers to the degree to which statistics meet current and potential needs of the users;
	(b) 'accuracy' refers to the closeness of estimates to the unknown true values;
	(c) 'timeliness' refers to the time lag between the availability of the information and the event or phenomenon it describes;
	(d) 'punctuality' refers to the time lag between the date of the release of the data and the target date when it should have been delivered;
	(e) 'accessibility' and 'clarity' refer to the conditions and modalities by which users can obtain, use and interpret data;
	(f) 'comparability' refers to the measurement of the impact of differences in applied statistical concepts and measurement tools and procedures when statistics are compared between geographical areas, sectoral domains or over time;
	(g) 'coherence' refers to the adequacy of the data to be reliably combined in different ways and for various uses.
Amendment 25 Article 17, paragraph -1 a (new)
	(- 1a) Every three years, and for the first time eighteen months after the date of application of this Regulation, Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with a report on the quality of the data transmitted.
Amendment 26 Article 17, paragraph -1 b (new)
	(- 1b) In applying the quality dimensions laid down in paragraph -1 to the data covered by this Regulation, the modalities and the structure of the quality reports shall be defined in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 19(2).
Justification
As foreseen in the Commission proposal, the regulatory procedure with scrutiny should be applied to all comitology provisions.
Amendment 27 Article 17, paragraph 2
(2) Member States shall provide the Commission every 3 years, and for the first time twelve months after the adoption of the current Regulation, with quality reports on livestock statistics, slaughtering statistics and meat production forecasts. The content of those quality reports shall be defined by the Commission in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 19(2).	deleted
Amendment 28 Article18, paragraph 1
(1) The following measures necessary for implementation of this Regulation shall be taken in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 19(2):	1) The following measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia by supplementing it with new non-essential elements, shall be taken in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 19(2):
(a) definition of the content of quality reports to be provided by Member States (Article 17(2);	(a) definition of the modalities and the structure of quality reports to be provided by Member States (Article 17(-1b));
	(aa) granting of transitional periods to Member States (Article 19a(1));
(b) modifications of the Annexes.	(b) modifications of Annexes I, II, IV and V.
Justification
As foreseen in the Commission proposal, the regulatory procedure with scrutiny should be applied to all comitology provisions.
Amendment 29 Article18, paragraph 2
(2) Consideration shall be given to the principle that the benefits of updating must outweigh its costs, and to the principle that additional costs and burdens remain within reasonable limits.	(2) Consideration shall be given to the principle that the benefits of modifications must outweigh their costs, and to the principle that additional costs and burdens remain within reasonable limits.
Amendment 30 Article19 a (new)
	Article 19a
	Transitional period
	(1) Full calendar year transitional periods for implementation of this Regulation lasting not more than one year from the date of its application may be granted to Member States, in so far as the application of this Regulation to their national statistical systems requires major adaptations and is likely to cause significant practical problems, in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny laid down in Article 19(2). In the case of sheep the transitional period may last up to two years.
	(2) To this end, a Member State shall present a duly motivated request to the Commission not later than 3 months after the entry into force of this Regulation.
Justification
As foreseen in the Commission proposal, the regulatory procedure with scrutiny should be applied to all comitology provisions.
Amendment 31 Article 20, paragraph 1
(1) Council Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93/25/EEC are repealed.	(1) Without prejudice to paragraph (2a) of this Article, Council Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93/25/EEC are repealed.
Amendment 32 Article 20, paragraph 2 a (new)
	(2a) By way of derogation from the second paragraph of Article 21, a Member State having been granted a derogation in accordance with Article 19a shall continue to apply the provisions of Council Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93/25/EEC for the duration of the transitional period granted.
Amendment 33 Article 21, paragraph 2
It shall apply from 1 January 2008.	It shall apply from 1 January 2009.
Amendment 34 Annex I, point (a)
(a) 'agricultural holding' as defined in Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88;	deleted
Amendment 35 Annex I, point (b)
(b) 'sample survey' as defined in Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88;	deleted
Amendment 36 Annex I, point (c)
(c) the term ‘pig’ means domestic animals of the species Sus;	deleted
Amendment 37 Annex I, point (d)
(d) the term ‘bovine animals’ means domestic animals of the species Bos taurus, Bubalus bubalus and Beefalo;	deleted
Amendment 38 Annex I, table, line 1, column 3
Bovine animals of not more than 300 kg live weight and not yet having permanent teeth,	Bovine animals aged 8 months or less
Amendment 39 Annex I, table, line 1 a, columns 1 and 2 (new)
Young cattle	Bovine animals aged more than 8 but not more than 12 months
Amendment 40 Annex I , table, line 2, column 1
Calves for slaughter	Calves and young cattle for slaughter
Justification
Technical amendment suggested by the Council Presidency in order to reach a first reading agreement.
Amendment 41 Annex I, table, line 2, column 2
Bovine animals less than one year old for slaughter as calves	Bovine animals less than one year old for slaughter as calves or young cattle
Justification
Technical amendment suggested by the Council Presidency in order to reach a first reading agreement.
Amendment 42 Annex I, table, line 3, column 3
Non-castrated male bovines not included under calves	Non-castrated male bovines not included under calves and young cattle
Amendment 43 Annex I, table, line 4, column 3
Castrated male bovines not included under calves	Castrated male bovines not included under calves and young cattle
Amendment 44 Annex I, table, line 5, column 3
Female bovines that have not yet calved not included under calves	Female bovines that have not yet calved not included under calves and young cattle
Amendment 45 Annex I, point (f)
(f) the term ‘sheep’ means domestic animals of the species Ovis;	deleted
Amendment 46 Annex I, point (h)
(h) the term ‘goats’ means domestic animals of the species Capra;	deleted
Amendment 47 Annex I, point (i)
(i) the term ‘poultry’ means domestic birds of the species Gallus domesticus (chickens), Meleagris (turkeys), Anas (ducks) and Anser anser dom (geese), among others. Other poultry may for example include domestic birds of the species Coturnix (quails), Phasianus (pheasants), Numida meleagris dom (guinea-fowl), Colombinae (pigeons), and Struthio camelus (ostriches). Birds raised in confinement for hunting purposes and not for producing meat are not included here;	deleted
Amendment 48 Annex I, point (j)
(j) the term ‘carcass’ means the body of an animal after slaughter and dressing;	(j) the term ‘carcass’;
	- for pigs means the body of a slaughtered pig, bled and eviscerated, whole or divided down the mid-line, without tongue, bristles, hooves, genital organs, flare fat, kidneys and diaphragm;
	- for bovines means the whole body of a slaughtered animal as presented after bleeding, evisceration and skinning, presented without the head and without the feet (the head shall be separated from the carcass at the atloido-occipital joint and the feet shall be severed at the carpametacarpal or tarsometatarsal joints); without the organs contained in the thoracic and abdominal cavities, with or without the kidneys, the kidney fat and the pelvic fat; and without the sexual organs and the attached muscles and without the udder or the mammary fat.
	- for sheep and goats means the whole body of a slaughtered animal as presented after bleeding, evisceration and skinning, presented without the head (separated at the altoido-occipital joint); without the feet (severed at the carpametacarpal or tarsometatarsal joints); without the tail (severed between the sixth and seventh caudal vertebrae); without the organs contained in the thoracic and abdominal cavities (except the kidneys and kidney fat), and without the udder and sexual organs; the kidneys and kidney fat are part of the carcass;
	- for poultry means the animal plucked and drawn, without head and feet and without neck, heart, liver and gizzard, known as '65 % chicken', or otherwise presented.
Amendment 49 Annex I, point (k)
(k) the term "carcass weight":	(k) the "carcass weight" means the weight of the cold carcass, which for pigs, notably, is obtained by subtracting 2% from the weight recorded warm at the latest 45 minutes after the pig was bled, and which for cattle is obtained by subtracting 2% from the weight recorded warm at the latest 60 minutes after the animal was bled.
- for pigs is the weight of the slaughtered pig's cold body, either whole or divided in half along the mid-line, after being bled and eviscerated and after removal of the tongue, bristles, hooves, genitalia, flare fat, kidneys and diaphragm;
- for bovines is the weight of the slaughtered animal’s cold body after being skinned, bled and eviscerated, and after removal of the external genitalia, the limbs at the carpus and tarsus, the head, the tail, the kidneys and kidney fats, and the udder;
- for sheep and goats is the weight of the slaughtered animal's cold body after having been bled, skinned and eviscerated, and after removal of the head (severed at the atlanto-occipital joint), of the feet (severed at the carpo-metacarpal or tarsometatarsal joints), of the tail (severed between the sixth and seventh caudal vertebrae) and of the genital organs (including udder);
- for poultry is the weight of the cold body of the slaughtered bird after being bled, plucked and eviscerated. It includes poultry offal, with the exception of foie gras.
Amendment 50 Annex I, point (l)
(l) the term ‘slaughterhouse’ means an officially registered and approved establishment used for slaughtering and dressing animals of which the meat is intended for human consumption.	deleted
Amendment 51 Annex II , category 2, line 2
calves for slaughter	calves or young cattle for slaughter
Justification
Technical amendment suggested by the Council Presidency in order to reach a first reading agreement.
Amendment 52 Annex IV, category 2, line 1 a (new)
	young cattle
Amendment 53 Annex IV, category 5 a (new)
	Others
Amendment 54 Annex V, category 2, line 1
calves	calves and young cattle

• [1]  Not yet published in OJ.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

The Commission proposal is designed to simplify the existing legislation, Council Directive 93/23/EEC of 1 June 1993 on the statistical surveys to be carried out on pig production, Council Directive 93/24/EEC of 1 June 1993 on the statistical surveys to be carried out on bovine animal production and Council Directive 93/25/EEC of 1 June 1993 on the statistical surveys to be carried out on sheep and goat stocks. Statistical surveys on poultry production are also to be introduced.

After the rapporteur had considered the Commission proposal and following an exchange of views on 7 May 2007, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development decided to apply the simplified procedure pursuant to Rule 43(1) of the Rules of Procedure (see draft report PE 388.618v01).

The rapporteur was subsequently asked by the Council secretariat to incorporate a number of amendments which the Council wished to make to the Commission proposal in a European Parliament report, thereby making it possible to conclude the legislative procedure at first reading. The committee then decided on 4 July 2007 to draw up a report in order to simplify the procedure.

This report responds to the Council's request. With a small number of exceptions that are explained below, the proposed amendments correspond to the wording drawn up by the Council working party and forwarded by the Portuguese presidency on 28 December 2007.

The Council's proposals can be described as follows:

· Clarification in the articles of some of the provisions previously set out in the annexes (in particular the definitions in Article 2 and the quality assessment in Article 17)

· More room for manoeuvre for the Member States in making use of administrative data rather than statistical surveys (Article 6)

· Qualification as regards regional surveys (Article 8)

· Limitations and clarification as regards forecasts (Articles 14 and 16)

· Shorter transitional periods (Article 20)

· Further procedures in addition to the proposed comitology provisions and restriction of Parliament's right of veto (Articles 18 and 19).

The rapporteur recommends that, for the most part, these Council proposals should be taken on board.

With regard to the comitology provisions, however, there does not appear to be any reason why the regulatory procedure with scrutiny should not be applied to all implementing provisions as originally envisaged in the Commission proposal. The Council would like to lay down the provisions on quality reports (in its Article 17, paragraph -1c (new)) using the regulatory procedure (without scrutiny). In addition, transitional periods are to be laid down using the management procedure (Article 20). It is not clear why these provisions should not be adopted using the regulatory procedure with scrutiny as envisaged by the Commission.

The interinstitutional agreement and Council Decision 2006/512/EC of 17 July 2006 make provision for the new regulatory procedure with scrutiny to be used in all cases where the basic instrument was adopted under the codecision procedure and where it 'provides for the adoption of measures of general scope designed to amend non-essential elements of that instrument, inter alia by deleting some of those elements or by supplementing the instrument by the addition of new non-essential elements'.[1] The rapporteur takes the view that both criteria are met here, and the Council's corresponding requests for amendments were therefore not incorporated into the draft report.

A further amendment by the rapporteur is purely linguistic in nature and concerns the list of various genera and species in the definitions (Article 2). The text proposed by the Council relates to genus, species and subspecies but refers only to species, so that the terminology is not completely correct.

• [1]  Article 2(2) (new) of Decision 2006/512/EC of 17 July 2006 amending Decision 1999/468/EC laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission.
  .

PROCEDURE

Title	Meat and livestock statistics
References	COM(2007)0129 – C6-0099/2007 – 2007/0051(COD)
Date submitted to Parliament	22.3.2007
Committee responsible        Date announced in plenary	AGRI 26.4.2007
Rapporteur(s)        Date appointed	Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf 4.7.2007
Simplified procedure - date of decision	8.5.2007
Discussed in committee	7.5.2007		8.5.2007		9.10.2007		25.2.2008
	1.4.2008
Date adopted	1.4.2008
Result of final vote	+: –: 0:	35 1 1
Members present for the final vote	Peter Baco, Bernadette Bourzai, Niels Busk, Luis Manuel Capoulas Santos, Giuseppe Castiglione, Joseph Daul, Albert Deß, Michl Ebner, Carmen Fraga Estévez, Ioannis Gklavakis, Lutz Goepel, Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf, Esther Herranz García, Lily Jacobs, Elisabeth Jeggle, Heinz Kindermann, Véronique Mathieu, Mairead McGuinness, Rosa Miguélez Ramos, James Nicholson, Neil Parish, María Isabel Salinas García, Agnes Schierhuber, Willem Schuth, Czesław Adam Siekierski, Alyn Smith, Petya Stavreva, Dimitar Stoyanov, Csaba Sándor Tabajdi, Jeffrey Titford, Donato Tommaso Veraldi, Janusz Wojciechowski
Substitute(s) present for the final vote	Alessandro Battilocchio, Katerina Batzeli, Esther De Lange, Ilda Figueiredo, Gábor Harangozó, Wiesław Stefan Kuc, Brian Simpson, Struan Stevenson