Commissioner Dombrovskis hosts Implementation Dialogue on agricultural farm statistics

The Implementation Dialogue on agricultural farm statistics took place in Brussels on 24 March 2026. It featured an open discussion with farmers' representatives, agricultural businesses and business associations, social partners and national statistical authorities. The aim was to gather stakeholder feedback on opportunities to simplify data collections and reduce administrative burden while maintaining the quality and relevance of agricultural farm statistics.

The exchanges started by taking stock of lessons learnt from implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 on integrated farm statistics, which covers the agricultural census 2020 and two farm surveys in 2023 and 2026 that provide a unique insight into the realities of farmers across Europe.

The discussions highlighted the need for better data interoperability to facilitate the re-use of existing data for statistical purposes and for sustainable partnerships between data holders and statistical authorities. The principle of 'collecting once and using multiple times' was stressed to avoid overlaps in data collections, along with the need to better define the scope of the data collection, guarantee the use of harmonised definitions, and properly communicate new requirements. The participants called for the future legal framework to include enablers and supporting mechanisms for using new sources like farm machinery data and digital technologies.

The stakeholders suggested that seamless data flows and interoperability can be supported by using unique farm identifiers that allow the interlinkage of existing data in separate administrative registers. This should be combined with efforts for wider re-use of such data to compile European statistics by the public authorities in the EU countries and at European level. The continuous relevance of official farm statistics should be ensured by improving their timeliness, capturing emerging trends and providing farmers with insights better tailored to their needs.

Commissioner Dombrovskis concluded the Implementation Dialogue by stressing the vital impact of stakeholders' input not only to simplify statistical reporting and reduce burden, but also to ensure that European official statistics continue to serve the real needs of farmers, businesses and policymakers in a fast-evolving landscape. Eurostat will consider the outcomes of this Implementation Dialogue and other stakeholder feedback received when preparing the European framework for future farm statistics.