Editorial preface

Activities of R.C.N.N.S. were of little importance during the first years of its existence. Foundation of the Committee took place during the Paris congress in 1980. One subsequent meeting during the “Geotagung"""" at Hamburg (F.R.G.) in 1984 was attended by two members only (see also the paper by Anderson & Janssen, elsewhere in this issue). In 1985 the Subcommission on Stratigraphy in The Netherlands (Commission for Geological Sciences, Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences) organized a workshop on Neogene stratigraphy of the Netherlands, which was very successful. It demonstrated a substantial interest in Neogene (and Paleogene!) stratigraphy among geologists and paleontologists. Encouraged by these results the Subcommission invited R.C.N.N.S. to organize a meeting of more international character on bio- and chronostratigraphical correlations within the North Sea Basin.