No L 149/10 Official Journal of the European Communities 21.6.93 COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 93/25/EEC of 1 June 1993 on the statictical surveys to be carried out on sheep and goat stocks THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty éstablishing the European Economic Commumty, and in particular Article 43 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1), Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (2}, . Whereas Council Directive 82/177/EEC of 22 March 1982 on the statistical surveys to be carried out by the Member States on sheep and goat stocks (3) has been amended several times; whereas further amendments being " necessary, the provisions thereof should, for reasons of clarity, be recast; ' Whereas provision should be made for those Member States whose goat population makes up only a small percentage of the overall population of the Community to reduce the number of surveys where appropriate; Whereas it is important to follow the trend in the structure of the agricultural holdings in the Member States; Whereas, in order to ensure that the common agricultural policy is properly administered, particularly where the sheepmeat and goatmeat market is concerned, the Commission requires regular data on trends in livestock and in sheepmeat and goatmeat production; Whereas the collection and processing of the data as well as the organization of the survey at national level should continue to lie within -the competence of the statistical services of the Member States, and the Commission should be responsible for the coordination and harmonization of statistical information at European level and arrange for the harmonized methodologies necessary to 1mplement Commumty policies; Whereas, in order to facilitate implementation of this Directive, close cooperation is necessary between the Member States and the Commission and this should in particular be effected via the Standing Committee on Agricultural  Statistics set up by 72/279/EEC (4), (1) OJ No C 18, 23. 1. 1993, p. 15. (2) O] No C 115, 26. 4. 1993, (3) OJ No L 81, 27. 3. 1982, p. 35. Directive last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1057/91 (O] No L 107, 27. 4. 1991, p. 11). (4) OJ No L 179, 7. 8. 1972, p. 1. Decision HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE: SECTION I SURVEYS OF THE POPULATION A. At national level Frequency — Field of survey Article 1 1. The Member States shall carry out statistical survey of the sheep population on their territory each year with referring to one of the first days in December. 2. Member States shall also carry out a statistical survey of the goat population, either as a separate survey or as a single survey of both sheep and goat populations: (a) each year, with reference to one of the first days in December, where the goat population is 500 000 head or more; ) ' ‘ (b) at least once every five years where the goat population is less than 500 000 head. 3. The Member States may, at their request, be authorized to use administrative sources instead of the statistical surveys under paragraphs 1 and 2. 4. In considering the requests referred to in paragraph 3, the Commission shall decide in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 20. Article 2 1. For the purposes of this Directive, ‘sheep’ means domestic animals of the species Ovis and ‘goats’ means domestic animals of the species Capra. 2. The surveys referred to in Article 1 shall cover all sheep and goats on agricultural holdings as defined by the Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 20. They shall cover sufficient holdings to account -for at least 95 % of the entire population as determined by the last survey on the structure of agricultural holdings. 3. As far as possible, Member States shall supplement the results of the surveys referred to in paragraph 2 with an estimate of the goat and sheep population not covered by the surveys.