Brussels, 13/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Leaders of regional organisations from the five continents signed a Declaration on the participation of the regions in the governance of globalisation in Marseille on 7 March, setting up the Forum of Networks of World Regions. The main objectives of this permanent body are to allow the regions to speak with one voice on the world stage, and to share know-how and good practice. The Forum will also seek to encourage good neighbourhood relations between border regions, and recognise and support the unique cultures and the traditional lifestyles of indigenous peoples. A Charter constituting the new Forum will be drawn up very soon, and it will be given legal status. The organisation will be chaired in the interim by Claudio Martini, President of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) and President of the Tuscany Region of Italy, and the CPMR will also take on the role of administrative secretariat in the meantime. The new Forum will meet again in Tanger-Tétouan (Morocco) in the spring of 2008, and then in Saint-Malo (France) in September of that same year, as part of the “Second Summit of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development”. For further information, contact Enrico Mayrhofer, CPMR in Brussels. Tel. 32 486 561 967; email: enrico.mayrhofer@crpm.org (gb)