28. 3. 96 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 78/27 COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 96/16/EC of 19 March 1996 on statistical surveys of milk and milk products THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 43 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the European Par- liament (%), Whereas Council Directive 72/280/EEC of 31 July 1972 on the statistical surveys to be made by the Member States on milk and milk products (}) has been amended on several occasions; whereas, in the light of new amend- ments, it is in the interest of transparency to reformulate the provisions of the said Directive; Whereas in order to carry out its duties under the Treaty and under Community provisions on the common or- ganization of the market in milk and milk products the Commission needs reliable information about the produc- tion and use of milk and regular, reliable, short-term in- formation about the delivery of milk to enterprises which treat or process milk and about the production of milk products in the Member States; Whereas surveys on the production and use of milk on the farm should be conducted in accordance with uniform criteria and in greater detail, and monthly surveys should be made in all Member States in enter- prises which process milk; Whereas, in order to obtain comparable results, common criteria should be fixed as regards the scope of the survey, the characteristics to be noted and the survey procedure; Whereas experience acquired in implementing the previous rules has shown that it would be useful to simplify the provisions, in particular by abolishing the requirement to provide weekly results; Whereas, in view of the growing importance of the milk- protein content of milk products the appropriate steps must be taken; Whereas, in order to facilitate implementation of the provisions of this Directive, it is appropriate to continue the close cooperation between the Member States and the () OJ No C 321, 1. 12. 1995, p. 6. (» O] No C 32, 5. 2. 1996. (®) OJ No L 179, 7. 8. 1972, p. 2. Directive as last amended by the 1994 Act of Accession. Commission, particularly in the Standing Committee for Agricultural  Statistics  established by  Decision 72/279/EEC (%, HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE: Article 1 Member States: 1. shall survey the survey units specified in Article 2 for the data specified in Article 4, and shall inform the Commission of the monthly, annual and triennial results; 2. shall carry out annual surveys of the production of milk and its use among agricultural holdings as defined in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 7, 3. subject to the Commission’s agreement, may use data from other official sources. Article 2 The surveys referred to in Article 1(1) shall cover: 1. undertakings or agricultural holdings which purchase whole milk or, in certain cases, milk products, either directly from agricultural holdings or from the under- takings referred to in point 2, with a view to transfor- ming them into milk products; 2. undertakings which collect milk or cream in order to transfer it in whole or in part, without any processing, to the undertakings referred to in point 1. Member States shall take all appropriate measures to prevent duplication of results as far as possible. Article 3 1. For the purpose of this Directive, ‘milk’ means the milk of cows, ewes, goats and buffaloes. The monthly surveys provided for in Article 4 (1) (a) shall cover only cow’s milk and products manufactured exclusively from cow’s milk. () OJ No L 179, 7. 8. 1972, p. 1.