The Regional Coordination Group on Economic Issues (RCG ECON) was established in 2021 as an expert group to assist the Commission in the implementation of the (DCF) Data Collection Framework concerning the collection, management and use of data in the fisheries sector and support for scientific advice regarding the Common Fisheries Policy. This was the third annual RCG ECON meeting organised. The RCG ECON 2023 meeting was held from 5th to 8th May in Brussels with the option to join online through the Teams virtual meeting platform, with 57 experts (Annex I) representing 22 Member States, Joint Research Centre, DG MARE and ICES.

The meeting agenda included the reporting of several ISSGs that took place during the last year: Fish Processing, evaluation of tangible and intangible capital values, the effects of alternative segmentation and the Regional Work Plan. The ISSG on Fish processing discussed the population definition and the variable definitions for this sector and made recommendations for the definitions in the Regional Work Plan and the reporting on raw materials. Moreover, the group recommended a change in the variables for the future DCF to be clearer. The ISSG on the tangible and intangible capital values discussed the pros and cons of using the PIM method in various MS and proposed additional guidelines for the application of the methods to estimate tangible capital values and the description of the methods in Annex 1.2 of the National Work Plan. With regards to the valuation of intangible assets, the ISSG concluded that the current estimated values are still to be used with caution as the methodology is still in development. More work should be done for the hedonic valuation of intangibles that are attached to the vessel and a study was proposed. The ISSG on the alternative segmentation approach progressed on the application and standardisation of this new approach that seems to be promising in narrowing the gap between the economic fleet definitions and the target fish populations. However, some remaining issues were identified (standardising the use of gears in the pre-segmentation and the clustering of species), that will need further analysis in an additional workshop. The draft Regional Work Plan was presented, based on the ISSG held in November 2022, together with the amendment for the ISSG on the processing industry. The resulting draft RWP includes the definitions of all variables from the DCF framework and the overview of statistical methods. It will be discussed and agreed during the September Decision meeting, and thereafter to be sent to STECF for evaluation. The results of the various ISSGs and the feedback from STECF groups using the DCF data in the last year also affect the guidance documents, which are available on the DCF website. The resulting changes in these documents were discussed and agreed. The updated guidance documents will be published on the DCF website. Outstanding issues, such as the inclusion of decommissioning subsidies in the data collection will be taken up during the ISSG in the coming year. Besides the ISSG outputs also other developments which affected the collection of social and economic data were discussed. The operationalisation of the social aspects of the CFP call for an extension of the analyses and data collection of the social aspect of fisheries and the dependent fishing communities. In ICES and STECF discussion are progressing on how to implement this, through the development of National Fisheries profiles and fishing community profiles and the development of additional social indicators to be collected. RCG Econ was updated on these developments and recommended that the practical implications of extra data collection should be taken into consideration in this process. Moreover, various MS will start to develop National Fisheries Profiles in the coming year. The transition towards sustainable energy use and the consequences for the fisheries and aquaculture sector were also discussed as this transition also affects the data collection. Additional data collection on the energy use of various fuel types will be necessary to monitor the transition and analyse best practices. This topic will be discussed further during an ISSG in autumn 2023. Another ISSG will be held on the comparison of transversal variables from the FDI and AER data calls and the potential for using FDI data as a basis for the AER transversal data. This ISSG is organised as an attempt to further harmonise the data from various calls and streamline the workflow in data collection and reporting. The RDBFIS II project was presented as the developed database provides an option for regional data storage and extended data validation and checking in the Mediterranean and Black Sea region. The development of the data base was found as a useful tool and RCG Econ will be updated on the future developments. With regards to organisational aspects of the data collection and RCG Econ activities there was a discussion on the facilitation of the RCGs by the secretariate and the effects of increasing prices on the data collection activities. The RCGs secretariate has been developed in the SecWeb project. It has been facilitating the RCG Econ and its’ ISSGs activities and its’ services (communication, facilitating meetings, hosting website) have been proven very useful. In the coming year, the activities of the secretariate will be extended. The consequences of high inflation rates and increasing prices present a challenge to many national data collection programmes. In view of all additional requests for data collection, RCG Econ recommended that the increased price levels should be considered in the development of the new DCF priorities.