This meeting was organized as a result of a process, comprising an external evaluation of the Committee on Aquaculture (CAQ) and its Networks, in 2004, and the endorsement by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) at its thirtieth session (January 2006) of a meeting of experts to identify the needs for a GFCM subsidiary body of CAQ which would deal with the socio-economic and technical aspects of aquaculture in the Mediterranean. The experts defined the terms of reference, priorities and modus operandi of such a subsidiary body.They also requested the fifth session of CAQ: to endorse the establishment of the Coordinating Steering Group on Technical, Economic and Social Aspects of Aquaculture in the Mediterranean (TESAM) and the ad hoc working groups proposed, to present results to the Commission at its forthcoming session, to review and redefine the objectives and terms of reference of the GFCM CAQ in order to reflect more precisely the socio-economic and technical issues that CAQ should handle for the Commission, to explore the possibility of a merger of the Environment and Aquaculture in the Mediterranean Network (EAM) and TESAM, to ensure a lighter cost-effective and efficient structure for CAQ subsidiary bodies, and to instruct the Information System for the Promotion of Aquaculture in the Mediterranean (SIPAM) to start collecting more socloeconomic, technical and research-related data and information to facilitate the work of TESAM.
The meeting of experts was informed of the findings and recommendations of the Workshop on European Seabass and Gilthead Seabream Markets, that was held in Rome on 12 May 2006. Many of the recommendations from the workshop were translated into activities to be carried out by the ad hoc Working Group on Marketing as proposed by the Expert Meeting