Regional Coordination Group on Economic Issues - 2021 - Report

The Regional Coordination Group on Economic Issues (RCG ECON) was established 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. The RCG ECON 2021 meeting was held from 1st to 3rd September online with application of the ZOOM virtual meeting platform, with 55 experts (Annex I) representing 25 Member States and DG MARE. Considering that the meeting was organised for the first time in the new Regional Coordination Group format the new role of RCG ECON was presented and an overview had been given about the evolution process and the change of status of PGECON from a subgroup of Commission expert working group on data collection to a pan regional RCG. The process was described from the beginning when it was started in 2017 to the final decision reached during the PGECON annual meeting in 2020. The new role of the RCG ECON as a coordination body of economic and social data collection activities in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors of the EU Member States was clarified to the participants. Another important role as a new responsibility and challenge that was mentioned for RCG ECON is preparation of the draft Regional Work Plan. The updates from the SecWeb project were presented about the supporting administrative tasks and online visibility of RCGs. Also, the several updates from the FishNCo project concerning Capital value and Capital costs estimations, valuation intangibles and level of ambition for regional coordination were presented and discussed during the RCG ECON meeting. The RCG ECON group proposal was in the frame of FishNCo project, to develop and circulate to the National Correspondents and relevant MS experts as well as other chairs of RCGs the questionnaire about potential data collection issues that could be solved by increased international cooperation, and list of possible issues about Capital costs and Capital value estimations. Still in relation to FishNCo activities concerning the collections of social variables, the RCG ECON will facilitate communication with NCs in relation to the development of national and community profiles. The feedback from the workshop on An Alternative Approach to the Segmentation of Fishing Fleets was presented to the RCG ECON. Several proposals were made by the experts during the meeting regarding the alternative segmentation application and use in the analysis. Thus far the clusters which are a result of the alternative segmentation tool are not yet discussed with regional fisheries experts; the harmonization of a potential alternative segmentation requires a clear agreement on a regional level. Most case studies from the segmentation workshop refer to the NANSEA area, thus it appears advisable to start with that region. Further work on alternative approach application to the fleet segmentation for economic data analysis was recommended by the group, collaboration with other RCGs and the new workshop was proposed for March 2022. Quality assurance framework for the Regional Work Plan and Quality Assurance Methodological Report inclusion in the National Work Plan was recommended by the RCG ECON group after the presentation of the feedback from a workshop on Quality Assurance Framework. The group discussed the usefulness of a forum for sharing experiences of applying the statistical methods suggested in the Handbook and comparing different data collection strategies and estimation methods between MS. The preliminary results were presented to the RCG ECON from a workshop on Social Variables. Main discussion was focused on National and Community profiles for social data which were recommended by STECF after the previous social EWG meetings. Ad-hoc case studies were recommended by the RCG ECON group to start tracking down what data is available and which methodological issues or technical challenges MS may face. During the DG MARE presentation about the new EU MAP updates, few issues were raised by economists in relation to the new National Work Plan templates concerning the inclusion in the tables of variables for inactive vessels. The group agreed to include two economic variables from EU MAP table 7 for inactive vessels in the WP table 5.2: Value of physical capital and Consumption of fixed capital. The round table discussion was held about the negative effect of Sars-CoV2 on data collection and as a result there were no major issues or problems reported by the group. The RCG ECON 2021 justifications and recommendations in relation to all issues mentioned above can be found in section three of the report, as well as the detailed description and objectives provided in section six. All recommended activities are planned for implementation till the end of 2022.