TAPAS and the Aquaculture Advisory Council – May 2018

TAPAS have been engaging this the Aquaculture Advisory Council (AAC) from early on in the project, when detailing the requirements analysis from the EU aquaculture sector. Now we have reached a pivotal point in the project for stakeholder engagement – to ground truth and refine the new and flexible approaches developed by project partners, to resolve some of these bottlenecks and issues outlined in the original requirements analysis.

Last month’s AAC meeting (May 2018) boasted high participation in a busy workshop attended by stakeholders. The AAC provides a platform for communication with stakeholders across the EU.

TAPAS presented to the council a brief description of the project and introduced the current consultation document “Draft consultation on new and flexible approaches to Aquaculture Licensing”.  Frank Kane presented an overview of the document, outlining its content, and he invited stakeholders to contribute to updating the document and to help develop tools and solutions to issues. He outlined for council members the 11 key recommendations put forward by TAPAS; introduced the TAPAS Toolbox and some of the elements of it; and request input from stakeholders, regarding refining & improving of approaches, including examples of effective approaches and demonstrators of best practices.

Further information: [email protected]

Overview of the “Draft consultation on new and flexible approaches to Aquaculture Licensing”:

  • Overview of issues, bottlenecks to regulation of aquaculture in the EU.
  • Recommendations to improve these issues and highlighting the potential positive impact of each.
  • Summary recommendations to tackle issues and bottlenecks.
  • Appendix - exploring case studies and potential new approaches
  • Basis for consultation and discussion.

 

The Aquaculture Advisory Council (AAC)

The Aquaculture Advisory Council (AAC) is a balanced stakeholder representative organisation. They provide advice to the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee, one or several European Union Member States and any other relevant stakeholder, on any new legislative, regulatory or legal measure at European or national level, that is relevant to its objectives and the tasks defined by regulation.

The Assembly and the Executive Committee are guided by the advice generated by three working groups. The Working Group 1 focuses on Finfish, the Working Group 2 on Shellfish and the Working Group 3 on Horizontal issues which affect aquaculture in general.  The AAC is composed of representatives from the industry and other stakeholders and NGOs, with a 60%:40% allocation of the seats in the general assembly and the Executive Committee.

https://www.aac-europe.org/en/