Saint Malo, 27/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - Annika Annerby Jansson became the first woman to be elected President of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) at the association's 40th general assembly in Saint Malo, France, on Thursday 26 September. Jansson, who is President of the Regional Council of Skane in Sweden, takes over the reins from Jean-Yves Le Drian, now the French Defence Minister. She will hold the post for one year. Her priorities are very close to those that the CPMR has long pursued: maritime issues and accessibility (trans-European transport network). She will work to ensure that cohesion policy reform is conducted from a territorial point of view. Ahead of the European elections, she will seek to encourage the representatives of the member regions to speak about the situation in Europe in less black and white terms. Annerby Jansson has for the last 30 years been active in the local and regional political life of Skane, Sweden's southernmost and perhaps its most European region, she said. She hopes to bring to the CPMR some of the positive and collaborative attitudes of Swedish local and regional politics. (MD/transl.fl)