On July 30^th, 2025, the European Commission proposed to simplify the collection and compilation of statistics on European fisheries and aquaculture. 

The proposal replaces five existing sets of rules by a single, simplified and integrated system which will reduce the reporting burden on Member States. It will enable the reuse of administrative data already collected by the European Commission for the compilation of European official statistics on fisheries and aquaculture. This will allow Eurostat to produce statistics on catches and the Union fishing fleet without requiring additional reporting from Member States, thus eliminating duplication and saving time and resources. 

The proposal also introduces for the first time the collection of data on discarded catches, recreational fisheries, sensitive species, landings from third-country fleets in EU ports, and organic aquaculture production. The new data structure will also allow for more aggregated figures to be produced and transmitted to international organisations, to promote global cooperation. 

Learn more here.