INTEGRATED MARITIME POLICY : NO STORM WARNINGS ON HORIZON.

• Position: Brief article

Things will be calm on the Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP) front during the first half of 2012. The European Commission's adoption in late 2011 of two proposals - the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and the draft regional strategy for the Atlantic Arc - will give the Danish Council Presidency, at most, time to launch debate in Council. These issues come under co-decision. So, before adopting a formal position, the Council will have to wait until the European Parliament has wrapped up its first reading. The ball is therefore in the Commission's court. It has announced a legislative proposal on spatial planning for early 2012 and, for November "at the earliest," on what it describes as the centrepiece of its action on IMP this year, a communication on blue growth'.

On the new fund, which covers both the fisheries and maritime sectors, the Danish Presidency will try to work out a general approach on the different aspects on which...