1.12.2008 Official Journal of the European Union L 321/1 (Acts adopted under the EC Treaty/Euratom Treaty whose publication is obligatory) REGULATIONS REGULATION (EC) No 1165/2008 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 19 November 2008 concerning livestock and meat statistics and repealing Council Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93[25/EEC (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: (1) Council Directive 93/23/EEC of 1 June 1993 on the statistical surveys to be carried out on pig production (3, 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 (¥) have been amended several times. Further amendments and simplifications now being necessary, these acts should, for reasons of clarity, be replaced by one single act. (2) In order to ensure that the common agricultural policy is properly administered, particularly where the beef, veal, pigmeat, sheepmeat, goatmeat and poultrymeat markets are concerned, the Commission requires regular data on trends in livestock and meat production. (3) 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 (") Opinion of the European Parliament of 20 May 2008 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 27 October 2008. () OJ L 149, 21.6.1993, p. 1. () OJ L 149, 21.6.1993, p. 5. () OJ L 149, 21.6.1993, p. 10. () OJL 56,2.3.1988, p. 1. Community surveys to produce statistics on the structure of agricultural holdings up to 2007. 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) (¢), all Member States’ statistics transmitted to the Commission which are broken down by territorial units are to use the NUTS classification. Consequently, in order to establish comparable regional statistics, the territorial units should be defined in accordance with the NUTS classification. In order to limit the burden on Member States, regional data requirements should not exceed the requirements established by previous legislation (unless new regional levels have come into existence in the meantime) and regional data should be optional when regional livestock numbers are below certain thresholds. In order to facilitate implementation of this Regulation, close cooperation is necessary between Member States and the Commission and this may be achieved in particular with the assistance of the Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics set up by Council Decision 72279/ EEC (). In order to ensure a smooth transition from the regime applicable under Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93/ 25[EEC, this Regulation should allow for the granting of a derogation for a period of up to one year and, in the case of sheep and goats, up to two years, to Member States where application of this Regulation to their national statistical () OJ L 154, 21.6.2003, p. 1. () OJL179,7.8.1972, p. 1.