Fisheries and aquaculture professionals across the EU have been invited to complete a 15-minute online survey about the day-to-day paperwork and compliance requirements they face.
The questionnaire is open to people across the fisheries and aquaculture supply chain, including fishers, aquaculture producers, first buyers, processors, wholesalers and retailers, the European Commission informed in a release on Tuesday.
It is available in all official EU languages and asks respondents to identify requirements they consider unnecessary, duplicative or overly burdensome.
Participants are asked which obligations apply to them — such as licences, logbooks, inspections, traceability requirements, food safety rules and environmental reporting — and to rate how costly or difficult these are to meet on a 1–5 scale.
The survey also asks whether businesses have had to submit the same data more than once, whether they needed external help to comply, and how much time is spent on administrative tasks and inspections.
Deadline and data handling
Responses must be submitted by Saturday 31 October 2026 at 23:59 CEST.
The Commission said the survey is anonymous and does not collect names, email addresses, IP addresses or other identifying information, with responses to be used only to inform simplification efforts and deleted after 18 months.
The work is being carried out by Deloitte as a contractor for the Commission, and participants can optionally leave contact details if they want to be considered for a follow-up interview.
