ABSTRACT: External maritime policy is the common sea transport principles of action which are supported by the EU in the international maritime organizations and especially in the IMO. Sea transport is the backbone of EU’s trade and an essential pillar of cross border support of global supply chains. So the external maritime policy is required to comply with a set of international legislation. IMO is the United Nations specialized producer of maritime law and agreements. EU cannot participate in the IMO sessions due to its legal status as a supranational political and economic union. But it maintains an observer position. This situation does not serve its external maritime policy. EU’s Member States are also independent Members of the IMO and some of them define its decisions. Recently, EU has been engaged in an effort to jointly represent its Member States in the IMO through the absolute primacy of EU law over national law. This means that EU wishes all its Member States to express the common EU positions in the IMO. It is about an indirect muzzle of Member States by the EU in the IMO’s decision making committees. This practice has been well understood by some EU’s maritime Member States and creates an ongoing confrontation. Leader of that confrontation is Greece as a traditional maritime state. Greece intends to challenge the EU introducing an initiative of unilateral representation of its positions in the IMO. To this scope, it exchanges views with other EU’s Member States in order to form a coalition. This article portrays the institutional controversy in EU’s external maritime policy by the unilateral initiative of Greece in the IMO and points out that the EU’s decisions on maritime policy are perhaps a stake for its future.

KEYWORDS: Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), Maritime Policy, IMO, Regional Policy, EU M-S' Cooperation, Tripartite agreements, CBSS, Greece

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