Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) were set up to provide greater stakeholder involvement in fisheries management at a regional level.
The European Commission’s 2001 Green Paper ‘On the Future of the Common Fisheries Policy’ pointed out that the CFP had not delivered sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources and will need to be changed if it was to do so. The paper suggested a series of reforms to the CFP including the establishment of a network of regional advisory committees on fisheries to involve stakeholders in the fisheries in discussions about fisheries management.
RACs were formally proposed in the Roadmap for Reform of the CFP, authorised in Council Regulation 2371 of December 2002, and described in detail in a Council Decision of July 2004. The decision confirmed that RACs could submit recommendations and suggestions of their own or at the request of the Commission or a Member State, on matters relating to fisheries management to the Commission or Member State concerned. However, it has always been evident that that the RACs can and will play a much wider role.
An existing group of fishers and scientists, The North Sea Commission Fisheries Partnership, facilitated the setting up of the North Sea RAC. At meetings in Bergen, Hamburg, and Brussels in 2003 and 2004 the structure and organisation of the RAC was discussed and a firm proposal for a North Sea RAC prepared. An informal working group was established to draft advice on the management of flatfish stocks. Organisations who might wish to take part in the NSRAC were invited to submit a letter of application to the Partnership and an Interim Executive Committee then met in Copenhagen on September 15th 2004 and agreed a proposal which went forward to Member States and the Commission in October 2004. The NSRAC was formally agreed by the Commission on November 1st 2004 and held its first General Assembly in Edinburgh on November 4th 2004.
