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Developing Quality Assessment System for reporting the economic modules of the DCF

The RCG ECON intersessional subgroup (ISSG) on Quality Assurance Framework met in Salerno from 18-20th March; the event focused on current quality assurance framework, reporting, and best practices.

The meeting was hosted by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Analysis (NISEA) and chaired by Evelina Carmen Sabatella from CNR, IRPPS, the event drew 30 participants from 16 Member States (MS), along with representatives from EUROSTAT, DGMARE, and JRC.

The meeting was aimed at developing the reporting on quality and methodology for the data collection framework for the economic modules of the DCF, covering fleet, aquaculture, and the processing sector.

Three key areas were addressed over the course of the event:

  1. Comparison and Analysis: participants discussed the elements in the current DCF quality reporting and compared them in relation to the European Statistical System (ESS) handbook for quality reports and the ESS Reference Metadata Reporting Standards;
  2. Best Practices Identification: quality reports from selected MS Work Plans were reviewed and compared to identify best practices;
  3. Evaluation: the evaluation of the state-of-the-art in Quality Reports was conducted, culminating in a general discussion on potential assessment criteria.

The ISSG compared the data quality information provided in the various products of the DCF (work plans, annual reports, JRC database and the STECF reports on the DCF data) with the EUROSTAT quality framework (ESS Code of Practice, QAF).

Final conclusions from the meeting are as follows:

  • Enhanced transparency: there is a need to improve the accessibility of DCF quality reports to increase the transparency of the whole data collection process;
  • Metadata Accessibility: making metadata readily available to data end users emerged as a crucial step toward facilitating informed decision-making;
  • Comparative aggregation of quality reports and reading should be implemented by RCG ECON to comment on similarities and to identify areas for improvement.

All the details about the meeting will be released in the ISSG report that it will be available the end of April/ May.