second, cooperation possibilities through new institutional structures is another relevant dimension of cooperation at the regional sea level. an example is the cooperation among stakeholders (albeit not across sectors) within the RACs and the ACs. the european common fisheries policy (cfp) reform in 2003 has resulted in more dialogues between operational actors and the RACs, and is seen as a step towards more co-managment in fisheries. in the refrom of 2013 the seven RACs aer replaced by 11 ACs for seven geographical areas and for the themes; outermost regions, aquaculture, markets and the Black sea. just as the RACs, the ACs constitute stakeholder forums consisting of representatives of the fisheries sector (60%) and repre-sentatives of NGOs (40%) (European union, 2013; hegland et al., 2012). the initial main intentions with the RACs were to take over much of the informal and stakeholder participation earlier conducted by the european commission, as some of the work that the advisory committee on fisheries and aquaculture (ACFA).