The General Assembly meets at least once a year to approve the overall strategy of the NSRAC and to oversee the work of the Executive Committee. The meetings rotate between Member States

The General Assembly appoints the Executive Committee which can have up to 24 members. The Executive Committee manages the activities and the advice provided by the NSRAC

In the General Assembly and the Executive Committee two thirds of the seats are allotted to the fisheries sector and one third to the other interest groups affected by the CFP. At least one representative of the catching sector from each Member State must be represented on the Executive Committee (click for details of current membership)

The work of the Executive Committee is reinforced by a number of Working Groups (click to get a list of Working Groups), which consider particular subjects of interest to the NSRAC and make recommendations on possible courses of action to the Executive Committee. The Working Groups allow a wider range of people to become involved in the NSRAC, including scientists, fishers, environmental specialists, economists and others.

Observers attend the meetings of the Executive Committee and they may include representatives of the Member States and the Commission, and participants from adjacent countries with an interest in the fisheries of the North Sea, for example Norway.

The meetings of the General Assembly are open to the public.

• Council Regulation 2371 of December 2002 
• Council Decision of July 2004

Constitutive documents of the NSRAC

• Provisional Rules of Procedure for the North Sea Regional Advisory Council 
• Rules of Procedure July 07
• Communications Protocol 2005
• Environmental Impact Protocol Nov 06
• Modified Protocol for Advice 2006
• Protocol for Observers 2005
• SocioEconomic Protocol Final

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.