The Regional Coordination Group on Economic Issues (RCG ECON) held its annual Technical Meeting from May 12th to 14th, 2026, in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The three-day hybrid event, hosted by the Executive Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Bulgaria, brought together European national experts and institutional representatives from 23 Member States to coordinate the collection, harmonisation, and reporting of economic and social data across the EU fisheries, aquaculture, and fish processing sectors.
The extensive agenda covered key strategic updates and methodology improvements divided into crucial thematic areas. Some of those:
- Institutional Progress & Feedback: The group analysed stakeholders feedback presented by the European Commission, discussed outputs from the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) Plenary and Expert Working Groups (EWGs) and JRC, and received an update on the progress of the RCG Secretariat including the latest outcomes from the implementation of the SECWEB 2.0 digital platform.
- Social and Methodological Advancements: Sessions focused on the STECF social report and the data collection of social variables and methodological challenges faced during the first rounds of data collection in fisheries and also in those foreseen around aquaculture and fish processing.
- Data Harmonisation & Regional Work Plans: Dedicated discussions were addressed around FDI-AER harmonisation (including the definition of maximum sea days), the design of future Regional Work Plans (RWP) for socio-economic data, and the management of the intersessional group around intersessional subgroups (ISSGs) versus dedicated workshops.
- Recommendations and Governance: The final day concluded with the STECF-AER Nowcast discussion, the drafting of official recommendations, and the preliminary planning for the next technical meeting under the guidance of the group’s chairs, including the hand over to the new ones by the end of the year.
The outcomes of this meeting will ensure a robust evidence base for future economic analyses and European fisheries policy-making. The final comprehensive meeting report will be published for public consultation on the RCG website in due course.
