National Coordination Meeting and the plenary session of the National Work Programme for Fishery Data Collection (PLNRDA)
On 31 March, the National Coordination Meeting and the plenary session of the National Work Programme for Fishery Data Collection (PLNRDA) for 2026 were held in Rome, in the Conference Hall of the National Research Council (CNR).
The PLNRDA is a programme funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry (MASAF) through the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF), and is implemented by a Temporary Grouping of Companies consisting of CNR, CIBM, CoNISMA, COISPA, NISEA, OCEANIS, FEDERPESCA R&S, AGER, RETEMARE, and UNIMAR, coordinated by CNR-IRBIM as the lead institution.
Through PLNRDA, MASAF fulfills the obligations under the Data Collection Framework (DCF) Regulation, which governs the collection of fisheries and aquaculture data within the European Union.
About 180 people attended the meeting, with 130 participants on site and 50 joining via streaming, representing the partners of the Temporary Grouping of Companies and other interested institutions. The MASAF delegation included Director General Graziella Romito and National Correspondent Maria Vittoria Briscolini; from the European Commission, Raluca Ivanescu, Head of Unit DG MARE C3; from the FAO-GFCM Mediterranean Fisheries Commission, Elisabetta Morello, Senior Fishery Officer; and from CNR, Gian Marco Luna, Director of the Institute of Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnology (CNR-IRBIM), and Francesco Petracchini, Director of the Department of Earth System Sciences and Environmental Technologies.
The meeting lasted the entire day, concluding around 17:00. Numerous presentations covered various aspects of the PLNRDA, from biological sampling to experimental fishing campaigns at sea, reporting the main activities carried out in 2025, those currently ongoing in 2026, and proposing potential activities for the coming years. The meeting was conducted mainly in English to facilitate the participation of European Commission officials.
31.03.2026 - Ancona