EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 13.12.2021 COM(2021) 789 final REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL





on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1921/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on the submission of statistical data on landings of fishery products in Member States









1Background The Commission (Eurostat) collects statistical data on landings of fishery products under Regulation (EC) No 1921/2006 (‘the Regulation’). According to Article 2 of the Regulation, fishery products are deemed to be landed on Member States’ territory if landed by EU and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) fishing vessels, or if landed on non-EU territory by EU fishing vessels and then imported into the EU. Article 10 of the Regulation requires the Commission to submit every 3 years a report to the European Parliament and the Council assessing, in particular, the quality and relevance of the statistical data collected. The report must also analyse the cost-effectiveness of the system for collecting and processing statistical data on landings and propose any best practices to lessen the workload at national level and lead to more useful, higher-quality statistical data. The Regulation applies to EU Member States, Norway and Iceland. However as it relates to landings of fishery products that are marine catch, landlocked countries are exempted from the data reporting obligation (5 Member States: Czechia, Luxemburg, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia). This report is based on (i) the quality reports on landings submitted to Eurostat by the reporting Member States for the reference year 2019, (ii) compliance analysis and (iii) cost data collected by Eurostat. The Commission adopted previous assessment reports concerning statistics on landings submitted under this Regulation in November 2010, April 2014, May 2016 and February 2019. European fisheries statistics also include detailed statistics on catches, fleet and aquaculture in addition to those on landings. Other Commission departments, mainly the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), also collect a large amount of data under Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 and Regulation (EU) No 2017/1004 in order to manage the common fisheries policy. The statistical data collected by Eurostat and the data collected by DG MARE overlap partially. This report covers only statistical data on total quantities and unit values of the fishery products landed in 2019 on the territory of the Member States, as collected by Eurostat. In 2018, Eurostat launched the project ‘Streamlining and simplifying European fishery statistics’. It consists of an evaluation of the current aquaculture, catch and landing statistics and an impact assessment on future policy options and possible future legislation. The evaluation, which also covered the implementation of the Regulation, was completed in 2019. The impact assessment was launched in 2020 and was close to being finalised at the time of drafting this report. 2 Main findings 2.1 Punctuality and completeness 2.1.1 Punctuality The punctuality of the data transmissions has improved over recent years, with most of the reporting countries sending the data on time. For the reference year 2019, the data transmitted by one third of the reporting countries needed some corrections. These corrections were provided within an acceptable period in most cases. The Commission (Eurostat) releases the data immediately after they are validated. If necessary, data can be revised at any time. 2.1.2 Completeness Data completeness has improved thanks to measures taken by the Member States to significantly extend their survey coverage of vessel types, foreign vessels and fish species. 2.2 Consistency 2.2.1 Quality and accuracy Eurostat collects quality reports on landings statistics every 3 years. They describe the methods and quality aspects of data collection based on self-assessments by the countries. Eurostat has used the national quality reports to compile an EU-level quality report .

The overall quality of the data was good and most Member States deemed both the non-response rate and under-coverage to be very low. A very limited number of Member States reported measurement or sampling errors, while possible misclassification was considered to have no impact on the quality of the data. 35% of the countries indicated that the overall quality of landings statistics has improved since the last quality report 3 years ago. More than half of the countries have a quality management system in place. Most improvements targeted timeliness, accuracy and reliability. 2.2.2 Comparability In October 2019, Eurostat published a handbook for catch and landings statistics , which has further improved the homogeneity and therefore the comparability of the statistical data between countries. The length of the time series – comparability over time – varies between the countries. However, for the period covered by this assessment report, data are comparable over time. 2.3 Relevance The statistical data collected under the Regulation are essential for informed, evidence-based policymaking at both national and EU level. The data on production levels and trends are important in analysing the development of the fisheries sector as part of the common fisheries policy and provide policymakers and industry with solid foundations on which to build the sector’s future. Landings statistics are widely used by various data users. The statistical data are an important source for other organisations’ publications and services. The European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products uses European statistics on landings in compiling its structural analysis of the European fisheries industry. Landing statistics form the basis for other data collections . The statistics on the volumes and prices of the fishery products landed on EU territory contribute to the Commission’s commitments on market intelligence. The data are essential for following up and analysing the EU fishery product markets along the supply chain. This statistical data could also be relevant to landing obligation as set out in Article 15(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 requiring all stocks for which there are catch limits to be landed and counted against the relevant quota. The Member States declared all user needs to be fully met at national level. 2.4. Accessibility 2.4.1. Online database Statistical data on landings of fishery products are available in the Eurostat public database in detailed country tables, as well as in an overall summary table displaying EU and national data at a more aggregated level. Half of the reporting Member States also publish the data at national level in online databases that users can access. 2.4.2 Publications and data tables Eurostat publishes data and articles concerning statistical data on landings of fishery products in its online ‘Statistics Explained’ collection and in statistical books. Half of the reporting countries produced electronic publications. 2.4.3 Metadata Every 3 years the Commission collects national quality reports on which this report is based (see footnote 8). The national reports include detailed information on the quality of the data and on the methods used to collect them. The national quality reports follow the European Statistical System (ESS) guidelines and are collected in the ESS Metadata Handler. 2.5 Data confidentiality There are very few confidential variables in the statistical data on landings of fishery products transmitted to the Commission. In 2019, three Member States faced confidentiality issues either for the quantity or the price of the landed products. As a result, the overall volume landed and value remained confidential for the EU total.