IMO Institutional Structure and Law-Making Process - Prevention of Pollution of the Marine Environment from Vessels - page 18

change and international shipping. This may be due to their divergent interests
regarding the maritime sector.
Nevertheless, IMO is still mainly dominated by developed countries despite the
scope for equal participation in most of the IMO organs. As will be discussed later
in this chapter, there is a role of non-governmental actors behind this domination.

2.2.2 United Nations and Other Intergovernmental
Organisations

IMO is a specialised agency of the United Nations in the fields of shipping and the
effect of shipping on the marine environment. 13 The IMO Convention 1948 pro-
vides that IMO shall cooperate with any specialised agency of the United Nations
on matters of common concern. 14 The IMO Convention 1948 also provides that
IMO may cooperate with other intergovernmental organisations whose interests
and activities are related to the purpose of the organisation. 15 In accordance with
these provisions IMO has signed agreements of cooperation with 63 intergovern-
mental organisations. 16 Some of these organisations are specialised organisations
from the maritime sector or regional organisations active in maritime sectors. These
organisations, particularly some regional organisations, may have and exert serious
influence on the Member States opinions regarding marine environmental issues

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under IMO s consideration. For example, the European Commission as the exec-

utive body of the European Union is an observer organisation in IMO. The
European Union has serious influence on other Members because a regulation
adopted by the European Union may be binding for the Member States. Therefore,
Member States of the European Union may try to impart the European Union

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s
view on the IMO negotiation process. 17 There is even a discussion on whether the
European Union should take full membership of IMO, although this is in fact
impossible without amending the IMO Convention 1948. 18
IMO works cooperatively with other organisations and programs in the United
Nations system for matters related to marine environment. One such example is
IMO

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s interaction with United Nations Environment Program.

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13

IMO Convention, art 59.

14

IMO Convention, art 60.

15

IMO Convention, art 61.
16 IMO, Intergovernmental Organizations which have concluded agreements of co-operation with
IMO, http://www.imo.org/About/Membership/Pages/IGOsWithObserverStatus.aspx , last

accessed on 14 June 2014.
17 See generally, Nengye and Maes ( 2010 ).
18 Nengye and Maes ( 2012 ).