The Planning Group on Commercial Catches, Discards and Biological Sampling [PGCCDBS] (Co-Chairs: Christoph Stransky, Germany, and Kjell Nedreaas, Norway) met 1–5 March 2010 in Lisbon, Portugal. The Planning Group and workshops are proposed in response to the EC-ICES Memorandum of Understanding that requests ICES to provide support for the Data Collection Framework (DCF; EC Reg. 199/2008 and 665/2008, Decisions 2008/949/EC and 2010/93/EU). PGCCDBS is the ICES forum for planning and co-ordination of collection of data for stock assessment purposes; it coordinates and initiates the development of methods and adopts sampling stan-dards and guidelines. Many activities in this group are closely linked to the activities of the DCF, and DG MARE of the European Commission is a member of PGCCDBS to ensure coordination with the DCF activities. Stock assessment requires data cover-ing the total removal from the fish stocks and the PG serves as a forum for coordina-tion with non-EU member countries where appropriate. Since 2007, Mediterranean scientists have organised a Mediterranean Planning Group for Methodological De-velopment (PGMED) to deal with specific sampling issues of this area. Although or-ganised in an autonomous group, it was agreed among all scientists that the contact and cooperation between the Mediterranean area the ICES area should be promoted and maintained. The link between the two planning groups is maintained through: (i) the organisation of parallel meetings; (ii) the organisation of joint plenary sessions for generic issues, and (iii) the organisation of joint workshops.