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
Date: 2019-02-05
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU Member State, EU statistics, data collection, data transmission, fishery product, fishing statistics, quantity of fish landed

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 5.2.2019 COM(2019) 47 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   
 
 
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 

1. BACKGROUND 

The  Commission  (Eurostat)  collects  statistics  on  landings  of  fishery  products  under 
Regulation (EC) No 1921/20061 (‘the Regulation’). According to the Regulation, landings are 
defined  as  fishery  products  landed  on  Member  States’  territory  by  EU  and  EFTA  fishing 
vessels, or landed on non-EU territory by Member State vessels and then imported into the 
EU2.  Article 10  of  the  Regulation  states  that  every  3  years  the  Commission  must  submit  a 
report to the European Parliament and the Council assessing, in particular, the quality and the 
relevance of the statistics. The report must also analyse the cost-effectiveness of the system 
for collecting statistical data on landings and highlight any best practices that could be shared 
to lessen the workload at national level and lead to more useful, higher-quality data. 

The  Regulation  applies  to  EU  Member  States  and  Norway,  Iceland  and  Liechtenstein. 
However  as  it  relates  to  landings  of  marine  catch,  landlocked  countries  are  exempted  from 
the data reporting obligation. 

This report is based on (i) the quality reports on landings submitted by the reporting Member 
States  to  Eurostat  for  the  reference  year  2016,  (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 20103, April 20144 and May 20165. 

Eurostat’s fisheries statistics also include detailed statistics on catches, fleet and aquaculture 
in  addition  to  those  on  landings.  Other  Commission  departments,  mainly  DG  Maritime 
Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), also collect a large amount of administrative data in order 

1 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  and  repealing  Council 
Regulation (EEC) No 1382/91 (OJ L 403, 30.12.2006, p. 1). 

2 This means that these statistics are not comparable to landing data collected under Council Regulation (EC) No 

1224/2009, where data are collected by vessel’s flag country. 

3 Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of Regulation 
(EC) No 1921/2006 on the submission of statistical data  on landings of  fishery products in Member States; 
COM(2010) 675 final. 

4 Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of Regulation 
(EC) No 1921/2006 on the submission of statistical data  on landings of  fishery products in Member States; 
COM(2014) 240 final. 

5 Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of Regulation 
(EC) No 1921/2006 on the submission of statistical data  on landings of  fishery products in Member States; 
COM(2016) 239 final. 

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to  manage  the  common  fisheries  policy.  The  statistics  collected  by  Eurostat  and  the 
administrative  data  collected  by  DG  MARE  partially  overlap.  Eurostat  has  launched  an 
evaluation of European fisheries statistics (covering statistics provided on catch, landings and 
aquaculture)  which  focuses  on  assessing  the  (i) relevance,  (ii)  effectiveness,  (iii) efficiency, 
(iv) coherence, (v) statistical quality and (vi) EU added value of the collected statistics in the 
context of all data collected by the Commission and other international organisations. 

This  report  covers  only  the  statistics  on  landings  collected  by  Eurostat  and  covered  by 
Regulation (EC) No 1921/2006. 

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 
Member States sending the data on time. For the reference year 2016, data transmitted by half 
of  the  reporting  Member  States  needed  some  corrections.  These  changes  were  provided 
within an acceptable time frame in most cases. 

The  Commission  (Eurostat)  releases  the  data  immediately  after  they  are  validated,  and  all 
figures  are  available  in  the  Eurostat  public  database  one  month  after  the  transmission 
deadline. If necessary, data can be revised at any time. 

2.1.2. Completeness 

The  data  completeness  has  improved  since  2015.  The  mandatory  unit  prices  of  fishery 
products,  which  had  previously  posed  problems,  are  now  in  most  cases  in  place.  Eurostat 
clarified  the  relevant  reporting  instructions  at  the  2015  Fisheries  Statistics  Expert  Group 
meeting. 

Data  completeness  has  also  improved  thanks to  measures  taken  by  some  Member  States  to 
significantly extend their survey coverage of vessel types, foreign vessels and species. Only 
three Member States claimed they did not collect data on landings from vessels less than 10 
metres long. 

2.2. Consistency 

2.2.1. Quality and accuracy 

The overall quality of the data was good and one third of the Member States reported that the 
quality had improved since the last assessment report. 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 data quality. In half of the reporting countries, landings 

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were  cross-checked  against  catch  statistics  or  other  national  data  sources  as  part  of  a 
verification procedure. 

2.2.2. Comparability 

Reporting  guidelines  provided  by  Eurostat  clarified  the  type  of  landings  covered  by  the 
Regulation. Along with improving data completeness, they improved the data comparability 
among countries. 

2.3. Relevance 

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. 

They could also be relevant in the context of the landing obligation6 requiring all catches of 
regulated commercial species to be landed and counted against the relevant quota. 

The Member States declared all user needs to be fully met at national level. Where national 
legislation exists, it covers all variables required in the EU Regulation. 

2.4. Accessibility 

2.4.1. Online database 

Statistics  on  landings  are  available  in  the  Commission’s  (Eurostat)  public  database7  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 

The Commission (Eurostat) publishes data and articles concerning statistics on landings in its 
online ‘Statistics Explained’ collection and in statistical books8. 

Half of the reporting countries produced electronic publications. 

6 Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on the 
Common  Fisheries  Policy,  amending  Council  Regulations  (EC)  No 1954/2003  and (EC)  No 1224/2009  and 
repealing  Council  Regulations  (EC)  No  2371/2002  and  (EC)  No  639/2004  and  Council  Decision 
2004/585/EC, Article 15. 

7 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database (available only in English, French and German). 
8  The  most  recent  is  ‘Agriculture,  forestry  and  fishery  statistics’  —  2017  edition,  ISBN  978-92-79-75765-5 
(available only in English). 

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2.4.3. Metadata 

Every  3  years  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  collects  national  quality  reports  on  which  this 
report is  based. 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  statistics  on  landings  transmitted  to  the 
Commission (Eurostat). In 2016, two Member States faced confidentiality issues due to the 
activity of a single fishing vessel in a given fishing area. As a result, the overall volume and 
value remained confidential for the EU total. However, the proportion of confidential data for 
the EU total was limited: for the year 2016, it represented only 1.5 % of the total number of 
values released for the EU-28 in the Commission’s (Eurostat) public database. 

3. BURDEN AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS 

Half of the reporting Member States claimed that they made gains in efficiency since the last 
report. One third of them  stated that they managed to  reduce the burden on respondents  by 
using more user-friendly questionnaires or easier data transmission methods. 

The ESS carried out a burden and cost analysis of the process involved in collecting data to 
provide  European  statistics’.  Some  17  Member  States  (out  of  23  which  report  statistics  on 
landings) sent figures regarding burden, which were expressed in full time equivalent (FTE). 
In addition, for the three Member States which could only provide a total figure for statistics 
on  both  fishery  catch  and  landings,  the  burden  for  landings  was  estimated  to  account  for 
roughly half of the total. The burden ranged from 0.01 to 11 FTE and was less than 0.25 FTE 
for half of those Member States who reported figures on burden. 

Some 17 countries sent  figures that included direct and indirect costs. For the two Member 
States which could not distinguish between costs for collecting data on catch and collecting 
data on landings, the cost was estimated to account for roughly half of the total. The average 
annual  cost  for  collecting  statistical  data  on  national  landings  was  approximately 
EUR 109 000  per  country.  If  compared  to  the  total  value  of  landings,  the  total  cost  of 
collecting data on landings was 0.08 % of the total value of landings. 

4. CONCLUSIONS 

In recent years statistics on landings have improved in terms of punctuality, completeness and 
consistency. Member States provide reliable information on the volume and value of fishery 
products  landed  in  the  EU  and  very  useful  detailed  data  at  species  level  to  be  used  for 
analysing the EU fish market. 

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Eurostat  reporting  guidelines  have  helped  make  the  data  on  landings  more  consistent.  In 
parallel,  measures  taken  by  national  data  providers  resulted  in  a  better  completeness  and 
punctuality. 

The annual cost for producing statistical data on landings was on average EUR 109 000 per 
Member State. However, the average proportion of the costs for collecting statistical data on 
landings in the total economic value of landings was below 0.1 %. 

5. RECOMMENDATIONS 

At national level countries should further encourage the use of electronic questionnaires, as it 
helps make the data collection more efficient. 

A systematic procedure for cross-checking with other national data would ensure better data 
consistency.  The  automation  of  validation  checks  would  also  increase  the  reliability  of  the 
data. 

The  Commission  (Eurostat)  strives  to  constantly  improve  the  quality  and  availability  of 
European  statistics.  It  is  also  committed  to  reducing  the  burden  on  Member  States  and 
respondents.  To  this  end,  it  has  included  in  its  annual  work  programme  20189  a  project  on 
streamlining and simplifying statistics on fisheries. This project includes an evaluation of the 
statistics on fisheries (catches, landings and aquaculture) that Eurostat currently collect. The 
evaluation  will  be  carried  out  in  the  overall  context  of  fisheries  data  collected  by  other 
Commission DGs and international organisations. It will contribute to a strategy that aims to 
make  fishery  statistics  collected  by  Eurostat  fitter  for  purpose.  The  evaluation  will  be 
completed in the summer of 2019. 

9 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/ess/-/annual-work-programme-2018 (available only in English). 

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