160th meeting of the Community Committee on FADN joined with the international seminar organized on the 40th anniversary of FADN existence in Europe

On 6th–8th of June 2005 – 160th meeting of the Community Committee on FADN joined with the international seminar organized on the 40th anniversary of FADN existence in Europe.
Representatives of 25 Member States of the European Union and 2 Candidate States (Romania and Bulgaria), as well as representatives of the European Commission and Eurostat participated in the meeting of the Community Committee on FADN, organized in Białowieża, podlaskie voivodship.
Two draft regulations on FADN were voted, standard results for accounting year 2003 were presented and the agreements from the Luxembourg meeting (2nd June, 2005) on the agricultural statistics in the EU were discussed during the meeting. After the seating of the Community Committee on FADN the participants visited the oldest in Poland stud of pure Arab horses in Janów Podlaski, the most important Orthodox sanctuary in Poland – the Holy Mountain of Grabarka and listened to an Orthodox music concert in Hajnówka. The second day of the participants’ stay started with visiting Museum of Agriculture in Ciechanowiec, which was connected with the presentation of Podlasie Agricultural Consultancy Centre in Szepietowo. Afterwards the guests visited two agricultural holdings specializing in milk production. One of them keeps financial books, whereas the other one keeps books in the FADN system. The grand seminar celebrating the 40th anniversary of FADN Europe was held in the afternoon. The guests were welcomed by Keijo Hyvonen – Head of the Unit for Analysis of the Situation of Agricultural Holdings ‘AGRI G3’ of the European Commission, Lech Goraj – Head of the Farm Accountancy Department IERiGŻ-PIB and Andrzej Kowalski – Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The seminar was led by Marek Skarżyński – the director of Agricultural Consultancy Centre in Szepietowo.

Presentations were given by:

Andrzej Kowalski “The Polish agriculture a year after the accession”,
Yves Plees “From perforated bands to the Internet”,
Keijo Hyvonen “40 years of FADN – achievements and challenges”,
Roger Price “The point of view of a Committee member”,
Lech Goraj “Adjusting bookkeeping to the FADN standards”,
Aleksandra Szelągowska “Agriculture in the National Agriculture Development Programme from 2007 to 2012”,
Barbara Domaszewicz “The scope of agricultural statistics”,
Wacław Guzewicz “The transformation of state-owned agricultural enterprises”.

The seminar ended with a full-dress dinner, when a well-known local group “Małanka” performed Belarusian folk songs. On their last day of the stay in Poland the participants paid a visit to another agricultural holding whose owners keep books in the FADN system, and visited Museum of Nature and Forestry of the Białowieża National Park.