A Joint Programming Committee of national representatives was responsible for overseeing the development process and two drafting teams were formed. Before the programme was submitted to the European Commission, it was approved by a Programme Monitoring Committee Plus made up of national and regional representatives from each of the partner countries.

An overview of the programming bodies can be found below:

Body		Composition & Role
Programme Monitoring Committee Plus	PMC+	Umbrella body consisting of INTERREG IIIB NPP PMC members and new members from Ireland and Northern Ireland to provide the basis for local, regional and national level participation and to make strategic overall decisions.
Joint Programming Committee	JPC	Main forum for reaching agreement between partner countries at the national level and responsible for ensuring that a joint new programme is produced and delivered on time.
Administration & Management Drafting Team	AMDT	Composed of key actors from the national level, as well as programme implementation level, that provide expertise and knowledge on setting up transnational cooperation programmes.
Content Drafting Team	CDT	Composed primarily of representatives from the regional level that can provide ‘bottom up’ regional and local perspectives with particular reference to developing priorities for cooperation based on analysis of the cooperating regions.
Secretariat	JPS	Responsible for coordinating the programme bodies and drafting of the Operational Programme. Responsibility delegated to the INTERREG IIIB Northern Periphery Programme Secretariat.

Consultation Process
A public consultation process involving the regions was a vital part of the development of the Northern Periphery Programme 2007-2013. The draft Operational Programme (OP) outlined and described the different aspects of the new programme, such as the priorities, objectives and management structure. The OP was open for a public consultation from 15 September until 15 October 2006 with a longer consultation period until 27 October for the Strategic Environmental Assessment. All stakeholders were invited to comment and contribute to the development of the new programme.

The role of the Strategic Environmental Assessment was to highlight environmental considerations during the preparation and adoption of the programme, ensuring that significant effects on the environment are identified, described and assessed, and taken into account in that process. It subsequently forms the basis for monitoring the environmental impacts of the programme.