Briefing - European fisheries and aquaculture statistics framework – implementation takeaways - 22-10-2025
The European Union's fisheries and aquaculture sector contributes about €5.5 billion per year to the EU economy and provides direct employment to around 193 000 fishers and aquaculture farmers across Europe. European fisheries statistics (EFS) have been collected since 1950 and provide official EU-wide data on fleet size and structure, catches, landings and aquaculture production. Statistical data are also used by the EU Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture to fulfil EU reporting obligations to international bodies, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and regional fisheries management organisations. Fisheries statistics are regulated by five separate regulations adopted between 2006 and 2009, which are largely recasts of 1990s legal acts. Together, these acts constitute the EFS framework. However, the European Commission's 2019 evaluation identified a number of key shortcomings and concluded that the existing legal framework is outdated, inflexible, and no longer meets the needs of policy makers and users. These findings, together with successive reforms of the common fisheries policy and the emergence of new EU data sources under the Control Regulation and the EU data collection framework, led the Commission to propose a new European fisheries and aquaculture statistics regulation on 30 July 2025. This implementation appraisal outlines the existing EFS framework, reviews and summarises the main findings of the 2019 Commission evaluation and its impact assessment, and identifies how the main findings of the evaluation and impact assessment are addressed in the proposed new regulation.
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP