Brussels, 31/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - The regions should put in place a new long term competitive strategy for successfully integrating into the new global economy and its context of rapid and inevitable globalisation. This is the conclusion made by the General Assembly of the Conference of the Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) at the end of its two days of work on 26-27 October in Murcia, Spain (the organisation brings together 155 different regions). On the same upbeat note displayed by Claudio Martini, the president of the CPMR who, after 2013, is banking on maintaining the link between Brussels and the regions despite, the pessimistic atmosphere, the European Commissioner for regional policy, Danuta Hübner highlighted the need for a solid basis for long term regional policy, “firmly believe that the new developments which we will witness in the coming years will play in favour of regional policy and local dimension. One of them is certainly the increasing importance of local and regional economies for Europe's growth, following the new focus on endogenous growth factors. The other is the increasing need for more synergies in multi-level governance - entailing more focus on the role of regions in economic policy governance”. According to the Commissioner, citizens want to see their affairs managed within a more local and regional dimension and harbour concerns about the risk of a centralised decision-making process being frustrated. The Commissioner says that these concerns are too pronounced to be ignored. Participants explained that a new battle of ideas should be launched among all European forces on the basis of certain key ideas: the role that the regions should play in guiding European economic life on the world scene, new modalities in political governance, as well as sustainable development and renewable energies. Michel Delebarre, president of the Committee of the Regions underlined the importance of a continuous dialogue with the CPMR, with which he share the main political orientation, territorial cohesion. He explained that “this goes well beyond the identification of territories that have particular handicaps and require specific treatment”. (il)