Under the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2017/1004, Member States (MS) should cooperate and coordinate their actions to further improve the quality, timeliness and coverage of data.
MS should also coordinate their data collection activities with other MS in the same marine region and make every effort to coordinate their actions with third countries in the same marine region. In order to facilitate cooperation, Regional Coordination Groups (RCG) have been established: Baltic, North Sea & Eastern Arctic, North Atlantic, Mediterranean/Black Sea, Large Pelagics and Long Distance Fisheries.
In 2020, an RCG ECON dealing with data collection of economic data issues was established, to continue the work of the Planning Group on economic issues (PGECON).
A Liaison meeting is organised every year to assess, discuss and coordinate work on issues that affect several marine regions. Link to recommended meetings here.
Regional Coordination Groups: MS make every effort to coordinate their actions in the same marine region
Meetings between RCGs, end users and the Commission to coordinate issues that affect marine regions
New approaches are explored with the aim to better face marine issues
Calls for proposals aiming to support projects that further enable RCGs and MS to strengthen regional or EU-wide cooperation on data collection