Brussels, 20/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - In a letter to the Finnish Presidency, the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) calls for “a paragraph on marine sciences and technologies” to be maintained within the Cooperation Programme for research, technological development and demonstration activities (see related article on Competitiveness Council next Monday). The CPMR trusts that, during talks underway between the Council and the EP, the Presidency will do its utmost to ensure that this specific phrase is re-introduced although the Parliament had deleted it. The letter was addressed by the President of the Tuscany Region and the CPMR, Claudio Martini, to Finnish Ministers Mauri Pekkarinen (Trade and Industry), Hannes Manninen (Regional and Local Affairs) and to the Permanent Representative with the EU, Eikka Kosonen. In his letter, Claudio Martini stresses the importance of relaunching the future EU maritime policy because of its “cross-cutting nature and especially as marine related science is not one of the thematic priority areas of the 7th Framework Programme”. He went on to add that “research and technology initiatives are essential to the successful achievement of the Lisbon and Gothenburg objectives in maritime regions”.