Farm Sustainability Data Network
The Council and the Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on the Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN) regulation.
The agreed text will amend the existing regulation on the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) in order to better reflect the goals of the 'farm to fork' strategy. The aim is to improve the sustainability of the EU’s food systems through an enhanced data collection process.
Once the regulation comes into force, we will be able to collect farm-level data on the sustainability of farm practices. This will provide us with a wider and more streamlined data set, enabling us to better address sustainability challenges and monitor our progress towards achieving our targets.
Peter Kullgren, Swedish Minister for Rural Affairs
From FADN to FSDN
The purpose of the FSDN regulation is to adapt the FADN regulation in order to allow the collection of additional data necessary in the follow-up of the objectives of the common agricultural policy (CAP) and of the European Green Deal and its 'farm to fork' and biodiversity strategies.
The regulation will provide for the collection of environmental and social data, in addition to the microeconomic and accountancy data that are already collected under the FADN regulation.
The revision of the regulation also aims to improve links with other data collection initiatives, thereby reducing the administrative burden. The data collected, comparable across member states, regions, farm types and farm sizes, will be used for research and policy-making.
Thanks to the amended regulation, advisory services for farmers will be improved, while farmers’ data will be protected.
Next steps
The provisional political agreement reached today will first be submitted to the EU member states’ representatives in the Special Committee on Agriculture in the Council and then to the Parliament, for approval, before being published in the EU’s Official Journal and entering into force. The amended regulation will be complemented by secondary legislation.
Background
The European Green Deal and its 'farm to fork' and biodiversity strategies have introduced environmental and climate targets for the farming sector, in order to contribute to achieving the EU's goal of climate neutrality by 2050.
Progress towards reaching these targets needs to be measured by means of appropriate data and indicators. That is why the European Commission announced a proposal to convert the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) into a Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN).
The existing FADN is a database of microeconomic and accountancy data collected every year, based on a common methodology, from a sample of more than 80 000 EU farms. The farms participate voluntarily and the sample is designed to be statistically representative.
On 15 May 2023, the Special Committee on Agriculture accepted the compromise text presented by the Swedish presidency and gave the Council a mandate to enter into negotiations with the European Parliament.
The first trilogue took place on 7 June 2023 and the deal between Council and Parliament negotiators was struck during their second trilogue, on 29 June 2023.