1.Without prejudice to their current data collection obligations under Union law, Member States shall collect data within the framework of an operational programme, as referred to in Article 18 of Regulation (EU) No 508/2014, and a work plan drawn up in accordance with the multiannual Union programme and pursuant to Article 21 of Regulation (EU) No 508/2014 (‘national work plan’).
2.When approving the national work plans in accordance with Article 21(2) of Regulation (EU) No 508/2014, the Commission shall take into account the evaluation conducted by STECF in accordance with Article 10 of this Regulation. If such evaluation indicates that a national work plan does not comply with this Article or does not ensure the scientific relevance of the data or sufficient quality of the proposed methods and procedures, the Commission shall immediately inform the Member State concerned and indicate amendments to that work plan that the Commission considers necessary. Subsequently, the Member State concerned shall submit a revised national work plan to the Commission.
3.National work plans shall contain a detailed description of the following:
(a)data to be collected in accordance with the multiannual Union programme;
(b)the temporal and spatial distribution and the frequency by which the data will be collected;
(c)the source of the data, the procedures and methods to collect and process the data into the data sets that will be provided to end-users of scientific data;
(d)the quality assurance and quality control framework to ensure adequate quality of the data in accordance with Article 14;
(e)in what format and when data are to be made available to end-users of scientific data, taking into account the needs defined by the end-users of scientific data, where known;
(f)the international and regional cooperation and coordination arrangements, including bilateral and multilateral agreements concluded to achieve the objectives of this Regulation; and
(g)how the international obligations of the Union and its Member States have been taken into account.
4.In preparing its national work plan, each Member State shall, in the framework of the regional coordination groups referred to in Article 9, cooperate and coordinate its efforts with other Member States, in particular those in the same marine region, to ensure sufficient and efficient coverage and avoid duplication of data collection activities. In that process, Member States shall also aim to involve relevant stakeholders at the appropriate level. Where appropriate, such cooperation and coordination may also take place outside the framework of the regional coordination groups.