AUTHORS: Clare Coffey

The Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) were essentially introduced to reinforce the contribution of stakeholders in the development of EU fisheries policy. Although there is now a legal basis for RACs, there are many uncertainties as to how they will work in practice.

The IEEP RAC workshop, held in Aberdeen in June 2003, was the initiative of IEEP, and was aimed at bringing together different interest groups, primarily from the UK, to discuss views of and expectations on RACs, and how they can and should work. There was also an opportunity to get up-to-date information about various UK-led regional seas initiatives, to help inform the RAC discussion. The meeting was to inform the development of the RAC framework currently being elaborated by the European Commission, as well as the subsequent establishment and functioning of individual RACs.

This report provides an overview of presentations and discussions during the meeting.