Commission Decision

of 26 October 2004

laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Directive 93/25/EEC on the statistical surveys to be carried out on sheep and goat stocks

(notified under document number C(2004) 4092)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2004/747/EC)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Council Directive 93/25/EEC of 1 June 1993 on the statistical surveys to be carried out on sheep and goat stocks1, and in particular Articles 2(2), 3(2) and (3), 7, and 13(3) thereof,

Whereas:

(1)

Precise definitions are required in order to carry out the surveys provided for in Directive 93/25/EEC. This requires the definition of the agricultural holdings covered by the survey. The different categories for the breakdown of the survey results, and the herd size classes and the territorial subdivisions according to which the Member States draw up the survey results at regular intervals must also be precisely defined. A standard definition of carcass weight is necessary for the drawing-up of slaughtering statistics.

(2)

Because of the accession of the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, it is necessary to make certain technical adaptations.

(3)

Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and the Council2 establishes a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) for the Member States; the regional levels previously defined for these must therefore be replaced by the new NUTS classification.

(4)

Commission Decision 2003/597/EC of 4 August 2003 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Directive 93/25/EEC as regards the statistical surveys on sheep and goat population and production3 should be repealed.

(5)

This Decision is in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Agricultural Statistics,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: