The European Commission’s Data Collection Framework (DCF, EU Regulation 2017/1004) establishes a European Community framework for the collection, management and use of data in the fisheries sector. Under the regulation, Member States are required to compile a wide range of biological and economic data as specified in the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2016/1251 of 12 July 2016 which sets out the requirements for 2017-19. The requirements include social and economic data on fisheries for each combination of fishing technique and management geographical areas.

NISEA is responsible for the collection of economic data for the Italian fishing fleet. At present, a probability proportional to size (PPS) sample survey is used to estimate the requested economic variables. However, the survey presents some methodological issues that affect its implementation. They are related to: a) the too high number of strata requested by the European regulation for the provisions of final estimates; b) the need to calibrate the estimates to exogenous variables on the activity of the fishing fleets (production and effort).

A deep methodological revision is therefore needed to revise the optimization and allocation methods and to move from a PPS to alternative approaches (as indirect estimates or balanced sampling).