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Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2212 of 3 September 2024 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards statistics on nutrients

Type Implementing Regulation

Publication 2024-09-03

State In force

Department European Commission, ESTAT

Source EUR-Lex

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THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 November 2022 on statistics on agricultural input and output, amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 617/2008 and repealing Regulations (EC) No 1165/2008, (EC) No 543/2009 and (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Directive 96/16/EC (1), and in particular Article 4(6), Article 5(10), and Article 9(4) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 establishes an integrated framework for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics related to agricultural inputs and outputs.

(2) In order to ensure that comparable data are produced by Member States and to achieve harmonisation within the agricultural statistics system, it is necessary to specify the technical elements of the statistics on agricultural inputs and outputs as regards nutrients to be transmitted to the Commission (Eurostat).

(3) Those elements consist of the list of variables, the descriptions of the variables, the observation units, the precision requirements to be applied, the methodological rules to be applied, and the deadlines for transmitting the data, where appropriate.

(4) The coverage of the data sets should be specified beyond the requirements in Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 where appropriate, to avoid inconsistencies between Member States.

(5) The reference periods mentioned in Article 9(4) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 should be further specified to ensure comparability of the statistics between Member States.

(6) The European statistics on nutrients should be compiled pursuant to methodologies which are coherent with the relevant internationally agreed standards, such as those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme.

(7) Nutrient balances are important indicators of the sustainability of agricultural activities. They can reflect risks to the environment by revealing persistent nitrogen and phosphorous surpluses or deficits in agricultural soils. A lack of nitrogen or phosphorous may cause degradation in soil fertility, while an excess may cause air and water pollution, potentially leading to, for example, eutrophication of surface waters and contamination of drinking water.

(8) Statistics on nutrients contribute to assessing the efficiency of the use of fertilisers and the dependency of food production on these inputs. The statistics are thus an important element of food security.

(9) The Commission’s Farm to Fork strategy in the context of the European Green Deal establishes the objective to reduce nutrient losses by half, while ensuring no deterioration in soil fertility, leading to an overall reduction of at least 20 % in the use of fertilisers by 2030. Moreover, the gross nutrient balance is a context indicator used to monitor the Common Agricultural Policy. Comparable and timely data on nutrient balances and on the use of fertilisers in agriculture will contribute to the assessment of these targets and other future policy targets. A timely assessment of the targets and indicators requires that data on nutrient balances is available before 2030.

(10) Nutrient balances should be calculated following the land budget approach, using coefficients to reflect the impact of crops and livestock on the nutrient flows. Those coefficients should be calculated using comparable methodologies in all Member States in order to ensure coherence and comparability. The coefficients should reflect a stable trend, removing the annual volatility.

(11) The availability of such coefficients is a prerequisite for calculating nutrient balances. The coefficients are used in conjunction with other related data sets, in particular statistics on crop and animal production, provided by the Member States, in order to produce annual nutrient balances.

(12) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the European Statistical System Committee,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Data requirements

Member States shall provide data on the domain of statistics on nutrients referred to in Article 5(1), point (d) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 in the form of aggregated data sets.

Member States shall transmit the aggregated data sets to the Commission (Eurostat) at national level.

Article 2

Data sets

The data contents of the data sets are specified in:

For each data set, section I specifies:

(a) a description of the data contents;

(b) the variables to be provided;

(d) the reference periods;

(e) the measurement units;

For each data set, section II specifies:

(a) a description of the measurement units;

(b) technical requirements related to the variables.

Article 3

Nutrient balances

The gross nutrient – nitrogen and phosphorous – balance shall be the difference between the nutrient inputs to, and outputs from, agricultural soil. The inputs shall be mainly the nutrients in fertilisers used and in the production of manure from livestock, but also those from the introduction of seeds and – for nitrogen – the processes of biological fixation and atmospheric deposition. The outputs shall mostly be the nutrients in crops and forage harvested or grazed, but also in the manure withdrawals and removal of crop residues not returned to the soil.

The net nitrogen balance shall be defined as the gross nutrient balance for nitrogen from which the nitrogen emissions from the soil and manure management are deducted.

The Commission (Eurostat) shall annually calculate these nutrient balances, based on

(a) data sets provided as described in Annex I and Annex II;

(b) data on animal production statistics as described in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2745 of 8 December 2023 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards animal production statistics (2);

(c) data on crop production statistics as described in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1538 of 25 July 2023 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards crop production statistics (3);

(d) data on emissions as reported under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (Air Convention) and the National Emission Reduction Commitments Directive (4), as well as under the EU Governance Regulation (5) and under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Article 4

Transmission of data referred to in Annex II

Member States shall provide data sets referred to in Annex II for the first time by 30 November 2029 for the reference years 2026, 2027 and 2028, and every 5 years thereafter, by the deadlines indicated in each data set.

Article 5

Quality and methodological specifications

When collection of data for the data sets is carried out based on statistical samples, Member States shall ensure that the weighted results are representative of the statistical population. Where sources other than statistical surveys are used, the quality of the statistics must be ensured in such a way that they are representative of the scope that they describe and meet the quality criteria laid down in Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 (6).

Member States shall ensure that the coefficients used are established by scientific methods to adequately describe the nutrient input or output of each variable as set out in Annex I and II.

Common methodological specifications for the compilation of the statistics are set out in Annex III with regard to the data sets in Annexes I to II.

Article 6

Descriptions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the descriptions of terms as set out in Annex IV shall apply.

Article 7

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 1 January 2026.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 3 September 2024.

For the Commission The President Ursula VON DER LEYEN

(1) OJ L 315, 7.12.2022, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2379/oj.

(2) OJ L, 2023/2745, 11.12.2023, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2023/2745/oj.

(3) OJ L 187, 26.7.2023, p. 40, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2023/1538/oj.

(4) Directive (EU) 2016/2284 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2016 on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants, amending Directive 2003/35/EC and repealing Directive 2001/81/EC. OJ L 344, 17.12.2016, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2016/2284/oj.

(5) Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action, amending Regulations (EC) No 663/2009 and (EC) No 715/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Directives 94/22/EC, 98/70/EC, 2009/31/EC, 2009/73/EC, 2010/31/EU, 2012/27/EU and 2013/30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, Council Directives 2009/119/EC and (EU) 2015/652 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council. OJ L 328, 21.12.2018, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2018/1999/oj.

(6) Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics and repealing Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1101/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities, Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, and Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom establishing a Committee on the Statistical Programmes of the European Communities. OJ L 87, 31.3.2009, p. 164, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2009/223/oj.

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