L 321/14 Official Journal of the European Union 1.12.2008 REGULATION (EC) No 1166/2008 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 19 November 2008 on farm structure surveys and the survey on agricultural production methods and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu- nity, and in particular Article 285(1) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (}), Whereas: o) Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 of 29 February 1988 on the organisation of Community surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings (%) 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 Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 of 20 September 2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) (?). 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 under- take the measures set out in the Commission Communica- tion of 15 September 2006 (*) which include the production of statistical data, particularly regarding farm management practices and the use of farm inputs. Opinion of the European Parliament of 21 May 2008 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 20 October 2008. OJ L 56, 2.3.1988, p. 1. OJ L 277, 21.10.2005, p. 1. Entitled ‘Development of agri-environmental indicators for monitor- ing the integration of environmental concerns into the common agricultural policy'. (6) (10) 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 develop- ment 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 com- mon 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 Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community Statistics (°) constitutes the reference framework for the provisions of this Regulation in particular as regards conformity to standards of imparti- ality, reliability, relevance, cost-effectiveness, statistical confidentiality and transparency. Council Regulation (Eura- tom, 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 (%) 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 Com- munity 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 ¢) OJL52, 2221997, p. 1. () OJL151,15.6.1990, p. 1.