The future of the Pelagic Advisory Council: Repositioning the organization in the face of BREXIT

The Pelagic Advisory Council (PELAC) advises the European Commission and relevant Member States on the management of pelagic fisheries in the EU. Membership is open to all stakeholders within pelagic fisheries affected by the Common Fisheries Policy. Stakeholder involvement in policy-making has been acknowledged to be one of the main drivers for good governance and is believed to increase compliance with the regulatory framework. Because of BREXIT UK stakeholders will no longer be eligible to be members of the PELAC under the current legal structure, nor will the PELAC have a legal basis to recommend measures to the UK. Post BREXIT the PELAC will lose a large area of its remit and some of its most important stakeholders. This article investigates what strategy the PELAC should adopt in the post BREXIT situation to function properly and retain its influence. It also explores what kind of organizational restructuring might be required to make the PELAC future-proof and how the future relationship with UK stakeholders should look like. The article concludes that the PELAC does not have to be a casualty of the BREXIT vote, but that its future is as much determined by the actions of its membership as it is by EU-UK negotiations. It highlights different perspectives for internal restructuring and suggests options to maintain the vital collaboration with third country stakeholders by establishing a semi-formal “Pelagic Forum” as a good intermediate step before eventually moving to a stakeholder council under NEAFC.