Recital 7

(7)European statistics on agricultural input and output are currently collected, produced and disseminated on the basis of a number of legal acts. The current legal framework does not provide proper consistency across the different statistical domains, nor does it promote an integrated approach towards the development, production and dissemination of agricultural statistics designed to cover the economic and environmental aspects of agriculture. This Regulation should replace those legal acts for the purposes of harmonisation and comparability of information and, to ensure consistency and coordination across European agricultural statistics, facilitate the integration and streamlining of the corresponding statistical processes and enable a more holistic approach. It is therefore necessary to repeal those legal acts, namely Regulations (EC) No 1165/2008 ⁴ , (EC) No 543/2009 ⁵ and (EC) No 1185/2009 ⁶ of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Directive 96/16/EC ⁷ . The numerous related European Statistical System’s (ESS) agreements and ‘gentlemen’s agreements’ between the national statistical institutes (NSIs) and the Commission (Eurostat) on data transmission should be integrated into this Regulation where there has been evidence that the data fulfil user needs, that the agreed methodology works and that the data are of appropriate quality.