Brussels, 04/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) will hold its 43rd General Assembly in Florence on Thursday 5-Friday 6 November. Participants have been invited by CPMR Vice President, Enrico Rossi, who is also the President of the Tuscany region. A variety of different subjects will be tackled, including particular attention on the management of migration flows.
Therefore, on Thursday 5 November, following a number of related meetings and geographic committees in the morning, members will examine what approach to adopt in the area of migration management, as well as what are the needs of the regions and what proposals they are making in this connection.
The European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides, will make the introductory speech at this event. Several regional governors and presidents, particularly those from Greece and Italy and directly affected by the refugee flows, will speak afterwards. On behalf of the regions, Annika Annerby Jansson, the vice president of the CPMR, will then present their respective draft policy positions on migration management.
On Friday 6 November, maritime and cohesion policies will be tackled as part of the post-2020 reform process (see EUROPE 11377), as well as climate change. As part of the first point, the CPMR is seeking to better integrate the peripheral maritime regions into European policies and increase the share of structural funds and funds for Horizon 2020 allocated to the blue economy. The second point (cohesion policy) is also important to the organisation, which is highlighting the fact that they should not apply the macro-economic conditions. This demand was also repeated in an own-initiative report recently adopted by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 11421). Finally, on the question of climate change, given that the UN climate conference is taking place at the end of the month, the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, was invited to open the debates during the second day of the event but his speech has not yet been confirmed. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)