The Commission has welcomed the conclusions of the General Affairs and External Relations Council of 16/17 November, which acknowledge the progress achieved in the field of the Integrated Maritime Policy over the past two years and endorse the integrated approach to maritime affairs. In its conclusions, the Council referred both to last month's IMP progress report submitted by the Commission and to the recent Communication on the integration of maritime surveillance.

The GAERC Council called on the Commission to maintain the momentum behind the Integrated Maritime Policy. It pointed to the need to enhance the economic potential of maritime sectors, improve the effectiveness of governments' actions at sea and generate synergies in pursuing economic growth, environmental stability and a solid social dimension for maritime activities.

Furthermore, the Council pinpointed a number of future avenues for the IMP. These included defining a strategy for growth, jobs and sustainability, pursuing maritime spatial planning initiatives, coming up with proposals on governance in marine and maritime research to enhance the role of scientific knowledge in decision-making, and making further progress towards integrated maritime surveillance. In particular, the Council called for the further development of the strategic approaches to regional sea basins, thus building on the Commission's recent work on the Arctic, the Baltic and the Mediterranean Sea and extending it onto other regions.

Welcoming the Commission’s Communication on developing the International Dimension of the Integrated Maritime Policy, the Council also recognised the importance of the dialogue at international level on an integrated maritime policy and other maritime issues in the relevant fora, including on the ratification and implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

In a separate set of conclusions, the Council endorsed the Commission's approach in its Communication entitled ‘Towards the integration of maritime surveillance’, launched in october, which lays the foundations for a Common Information Sharing Environment.

The Council asked the Commission to work closely with Member States and relevant EU bodies to bring together the appropriate civilian and military aspects of maritime surveillance to establish an integrated approach to surveillance activities. To this end, it called on the Commission to draw up a Roadmap by the end of 2010, listing the necessary steps towards this integrated approach. The Roadmap would then be updated in 2011 to reflect the results of relevant projects and the lessons learned from European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) operations.

It has been two years since the Commission presented an Action Plan on the Integrated Maritime Policy, which is contemplated actions in a wide range of issues ranging from maritime transport, through employment, scientific research, fisheries and protecting the marine environment.