The Regional Advisory Councils’ current capacities and unforeseen benefits

Kristen Ounanian,Troels Jacob Hegland

doi:10.1186/2212-9790-11-10

Abstract

The 2002 Common Fisheries Policy (cfp) reform introduced the Regional Advisory Councils (rac s) to enhance stakeholder involvement and correct one of the policy’s primary deficiencies, its lack of legitimacy, arising in part from low stakeholder involvement. While some criticize the 2002 reform as not going far enough to alleviate problems of lagging process and content legitimacy, in certain ways the rac s may be thought of as representing an interim institutional stage, facilitating better information sharing and cultivating stakeholder relationships. Based on a survey of rac participants, this paper illuminates the current capacities and functions of the rac s. The paper reveals that the rac s possess additional—often not sufficiently recognised—roles and values to the advice they produce as they facilitate understanding across and within sectors and interest groups and act as key purveyors of information. Additionally, the findings indicate that among those participating in the rac s, there are varying degrees of feelings of impact. Some participants recognize a positive change in EU fisheries governance, whereas others are sceptical of purported improvements.

Highlights

The 2002 Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform introduced a novel set of stakeholder bodies, the Regional Advisory Councils (RACs), to provide advice primarily to the Commission of the European Communities (Commission) on matters pertaining to the fisheries in a defined geographic area or related to specific fisheries
Soon after the 2002 CFP reform was in place, questions regarding the actual extent of the stakeholder involvement in European-level fisheries management continued to arise
RAC membership comprises fishing industry and non-industry stakeholders from the European Union (EU) member states who share stocks, habitats, and interests in the defined region. With another decadal CFP reform in the making, a question is whether the RACs have delivered what their architects had hoped or if they merely represent relatively weak institutional structures with the weight of power remaining in the central EU entities

Summary

Introduction

The 2002 Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform introduced a novel set of stakeholder bodies, the Regional Advisory Councils (RACs), to provide advice primarily to the Commission of the European Communities (Commission) on matters pertaining to the fisheries in a defined geographic area or related to specific fisheries. RAC membership comprises fishing industry and non-industry stakeholders from the EU member states who share stocks, habitats, and interests in the defined region With another decadal CFP reform in the making, a question is whether the RACs have delivered what their architects had hoped or if they merely represent relatively weak institutional structures with the weight of power remaining in the central EU entities. For perspective from those involved, it befits an investigation of the RACs’ current capacities and their memberships’ opinions on their functioning

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion