The CPMR was an observer at the IOPC (International oil Pollution Compensation) Funds meeting, on 17th October, in London. During the meeting, it presented a

The CPMR recommended that reflection on a new fund should take place as an answer to legal uncertainties resulting from decisions taken in January 2016 and September 2012 by Spanish and French courts in the Prestige and Erika cases.

In their rulings, Spanish and French Courts gave recognition to ecological damage thanks to an interpretation of CLC/IOPC conventions that excluded their application. The consequence is that national rules, and not those of the CLC/IOPC conventions, are applied to define environmental damage and the compensation for it. In the future, national courts from other countries than Spain and France might follow the same interpretation. This generates legal uncertainty for shipping companies as well as for insurers, which are not covered by the same rules from one country to another.

The establishment of a voluntary supplementary fund within IOPC could make it possible to establish a definition and compensation rules that would be the same in all countries.

In London, several national delegations and observer organisations representing the insurance and shipping sectors expressed their concerns about the impact of the national jurisdiction judgements on legal certainty. The CPMR will continue discussions with delegations to the IOPC and to the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) on this matter.

The film ‘A Turning Tide in the Life of Man’, by filmaker Loïc Jourdain, conveys the complexity of such political decisions and the consequences for the lives of small coastal communities.

Since 2006, islanders from the communities of Árainn Mhór Island, Inis Bo Finne and Tory Island, in Donegal, Ireland, together with experts from around the world, have been working on common documents and actions that will help them to survive Government-led policies.

This action has allowed them to participate in the writing of new reform of the fishing policy which was put in place in 2014 for all European countries.

Focusing on one fisherman, John O’Brien, the documentary follows John’s personal journey with his family and friends from Árainn Mhór Island, Inis Bo Finne and Tory Island over 8 years. It looks at his work with international experts, NGOs, including the CPMR Islands Commission, leading him to the European Parliament in Brussels.

The CPMR Islands Commission aims to make islands’ voice heard and understood at EU level. The film brings to light the issues and concern shared by islands communities across Europe and tells the story of the process followed by one man to convince 500 million European citizens.

You can watch the trailer for the film here. If you would like to organise a screening of the film please contact Irène Oger, Sociocultural Coordinator of Ubuntu Culture, at culture.ubuntu@gmail.com

The CPMR, one of the 34 PLATFORMA partners, will be a speaker at the PLATFORMA Eastern Neighbourhood Coordination Seminar on 15-16 December 2016 in Tbilisi, Georgia. 

The session, entitled “Providing tangible results to citizens: Local and regional governments contribution to the Eastern Partnership” will gathering high-level speakers from European and national level.

The CPMR’s Balkan & Black Sea Commission (BBSC) will present its actions to help develop the work of the Eastern Partnership.

This seminar is expected to develop further reflection on fostering cooperation in the wider Black Sea region and making better use of upcoming opportunities.

A first information meeting for the launch of the Interreg MED Program’s modular and horizontal projects took place on 8-9 November in Nice (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region).

The CPMR’s Intermediterranean Commission is a partner in the horizontal projects InnoBlueGrowth (Axis 1 on Blue Growth) and PANACeA (Axis 3.2 on Protected Areas), and in the modular projects SHERPA (Axis 2.1 on energy efficiency in buildings) and CO-EVOLVE (Axis 3.1 on sustainable tourism).

These first exchanges made it possible to start to develop the relationship between horizontal and modular project partners. The horizontal projects are indeed in charge of the communication and capitalisation activities of the modular projects.

As well as creating a genuine community of projects that can exchange information effectively and reach greater critical mass, project activities aim to represent a balanced, sensitive understanding of the identified themes. This will be useful to raise awareness towards relevant political and territorial bodies. It also hoped that they will offer useful reflections to feed discussions for IMC and CPMR working groups.

InnoBlueGrowth will be particularly linked to the MAESTRALE, PELAGOS and PROTEUS projects, dealing with marine renewable energies for the former, and maritime surveillance for the latter. Two to three additional modular projects from the second evaluation phase of the Program should be added to this list from the beginning of December 2016.

As for PANACeA, it will be linked to eight projects dealing with various topics under the umbrella of ecosystem and environmental preservation/management, including protected [marine] areas or “[M] PAs”: AMARe (maritime spatial planning and PAs), CONFISH (fish stock recovery network), ECOSUSTAIN (PAs), FishMPABlue2 (governance of artisanal fisheries in PAs), MEDSEALITTER (marine waste management), MPA-ADAPT (adaptation of MPAs to climate change), POSBEMED (joint strategy for beach and dune posidonia management) and WETNET (wetland governance). Two other modular projects will potentially be added to this list next month.

An event dedicated to the Community of projects, including the latest approved projects, will be organised by the program at the beginning of 2017.

The events were also attended by a number of other Mediterranean regions and the President of the EU Committee of the Regions, Markku Markkula.

Georgios Aggelopoulos, regional councilor of Western Greece and representative of the CPMR IMC Presidency, took part in the meeting of the ARLEM Commission on Sustainable Territorial Development and the Climate summit for local and regional leaders.

During the meeting, Mr Aggelopoulos backed the contents of the draft report on Climate and Energy presented by his colleague Mohamed Sadiki, Mayor of Rabat, Regional Councillor of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Region and IMC Vice-President.

Mr Aggelopoulos underlined the IMC’s contribution and the importance of continuing to work together, as well as developing concrete actions on the ground on fundamental issues such as energy renovation in Med buildings, the relation between water management and renewable energies, or capacity building activities. He also stressed the important role played by Med Cop Climate and Covenant of Mayors.

Francesco Pigliaru, president of the Region Sardinia also presented his draft report on Cross border cooperation in the Mediterranean, which is of course strongly supported by the IMC.

The Intermediterranean Commission will continue making synergies with multiple partner organizations in Morocco during the following weeks.

Several delegations of its Secretariat and member regions will be attending and contributing to the MED PAN Forum on marine protected areas (Tangier 28/11-1/12/2016), UCLG Med Commission IV Forum of the Local and Regional Authorities (Tangier 30/11/2016), Med Cities General Assembly (Tetouan, 1-2/12/2016) and other side events.

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The CPMR Baltic Sea Commission (BSC) and its member regions have joined an exciting new pilot collaboration exploring potential opportunities for ‘clean technology’ to benefit the Baltic Sea Region. It is also a process of exploring how the ERDF-funds could be utilised in transnational cooperation.  

‘Clean technology’ refers to any process, product, or service that reduces potentially negative environmental impacts by introducing energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities.  It includes a range of technology related to areas such as recycling, renewable energy, IT, green transportation or electric motors.

The ‘Clean-Tech’ pilot project has been formed through the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region’s (EUSBSR) ERDF Managing Authority-network. This network started spring 2016 and is made up of the managing authorities from Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Germany. These Managing Authorities has agreed to jointly explore opportunities for transnational collaboration through the means of joint ERDF-calls in the Baltic Sea Region.

The pilot project, the first to be developed by the network, is being managed by the Västerbotten of Sweden. The Baltic Sea Commission and its Commissions are currently involved in initial discussions on how to develop the collaboration and drive its methodology across the area’s territories.

In spring 2017, regional and local stakeholders from all over the Baltic Sea will come together to finalise a joint call that will make use of Article 70, enabling up to 15% of the structural funds to be used in a transnational setting. The process will be funded by the Västerbotten region and the Innovation Policy Area of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region.

Jonas Lundstrom, acting Head of Enterprise, Innovation and Social Development in Region Västerbotten, said: “By using ERDF Structural Funds more flexibly, along with the Article 70, we can enhance the work of our existing projects and processes with a transnational component.  

“In the case of this pilot, wider collaborations with other clean-tech clusters and clean-tech regions are needed. By working closely with private companies and organisations focused on development, we can address any issues and identify how we can make use of the exciting options available through clean technology.”

More specifically this call invites the following Baltic Sea Region actors to collaborate:

• Regional authorities in BSR countries with responsibility for Smart Specialization Strategies;
• Innovation actors, business development organisations, incubators etc. in BSR countries working with Clean-tech companies as a target group;
• Other intermediary bodies and actors supporting Clean-tech development, who are active in different national regions in the Baltic Sea Region;
• Other relevant organisations connected to Clean-tech industries and implementation of Smart Specialisation Strategies, etc.

Example of activities in collaborations:

Joint activities identified (through stakeholder discussions) as essential to develop the Clean-tech industry opportunities are:

• Networking, for example, cluster cooperation, matchmaking, partnerships between businesses and public organizations;
• Knowledge transfer, such as benchmarking, joint projects, exchange of personnel;
• Feasibility studies, for example, to develop partnerships between regions and clusters and explore business opportunities with other regions;
• Validation of products and services through open test beds, e.g. test environments in northern Sweden.

For more information – contact Åsa Bjering (asa.bjering@crpm.org), Executive Secretary of the CPMR Baltic Sea Commission.

The CPMR has analysed this potential by looking at the maritime dimension of over 110 RIS3, which guide investments related to regional policy.

This study, which was presented at the CPMR General Assembly 2016, shows that peripheral and maritime regions are prepared to invest in the economic potential offered by the maritime economy.

Six interactive maps have been developed, which provide access to information by Region and by theme.

The sea is a significant priority in 80% of the analysed strategies. It is included in the following themes:

• Food, nutrition and health which includes for instance fisheries, aquaculture and marine biotechnology;
• Tourism and leisure in coastal areas;
• Managing marine and coastal areas;
• Maritime transport;
• Marine renewable energy, shipbuilding, advanced materials and manufacturing processes.

On the basis of the findings of this study, the CPMR recommends considering the Sea as a key area for EU investment in the preparation of the future EU policies after 2020.

Enrico Rossi, CPMR Vice-President and President of Tuscany Region

CPMR Vice-President and President of Tuscany Region Enrico Rossi contributed to a high level roundtable meeting organised by the Italian government on 16 November in Brussels on the subject of the future of Cohesion Policy.

President Rossi presented the CPMR proposals on post-2020 Cohesion Policy to Claudio De Vincenti, Cabinet Undersecretary to the Italian Prime Minister, and Maurizio Massari, Permanent Representative Ambassador of the Permanent Representation of Italy, amongst other high level representatives.

Regional Policy Commissioner Cretu Head of Cabinet Nicola de Michelis was also present at the meeting to present the areas of reform for Cohesion Policy from the point of view of the European Commission.

He insisted on the need for a European investment strategy to combine the strengths of Cohesion Policy and the Investment Plan for Europe and on the need to simplify the policy for the post-2020 period.

President Rossi also stressed the need for Cohesion Policy to cover all European Regions after 2020.

DESTINATIONS, a four-year sustainable mobility project co-financed by H2020, involves insular cities in six CPMR member regions: Madeira, Canarias, Malta, Crete, Tuscany (the communities of Rio Marina & Portoferraio on the small island of Elba) and Cyprus.

The project, which held its first meeting in Funchal, Madeira on 14-16 September 2016, is aimed at involve other CPMR regions that are willing to implement its tools, methods and intelligent urban mobility solutions. This will be done through a platform of followers that will be coordinated by the CPMR secretariat in Brussels.

Keynote speakers at the first meeting included Alejandro Gonçalves, project coordinator and President of Horrarios de Funchal, Eduardo Jesus, Regional Secretary of Tourism and Transport of the Government of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, Marcel Rommerts, Head of Unit, Horizon 2020 Transport research, INEA, European Commission, Zoritsa Urosevic, representative of the World Tourism Organisation to the United Nations in Geneva, and Carla Carvalho Dias, Founder of the Top Service Academy.

Both Alejandro Gonçalves and Eduardo Jesus highlighted why and how the project was going to improve both residents and visitors lives in regions where half of the GDP is coming from tourism.

Zoritsa Urosevic outlined the areas of cooperation that can be further discussed between the WTO and DESTINATIONS.  She invited the project to join the International Sustainable Tourism Observatory (INTSO) network, advising that pilot project could be created to monitor tourism sustainable mobility.

Carvalho Dias focused on changing people’s mind sets. She explained that transport is part of everyone’s lives at all levels and we are constantly taking decisions such as where to go and how to get there. To improve transport attitudes and habits, she underlined that we have to understand how decisions can be influenced; and a first step is influencing attitudes and decisions through positive experiences.

On the second day of the meeting a high level political round table discussion was held, involving the political representatives from the 7 DESTINATIONS cities. They all gave their views on common challenges they face and how the project could help overcome them.

They all agreed to support the project activities in each one of their communities and be actively involved in further common discussions through a Political Steering Committee.

The next project meeting will take place in Rethymnon, Crete at the end of April 2017.

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The CPMR has repeated its commitment to ensuring that the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funds are not only allocated to the nine transnational corridors.

However, the CPMR’s member regions and its Geographical Commissions have also stressed that they want to take part in the selection of priority projects on the corridors that concern their territories.

As a result of these positions, the CPMR is urging its member regions to attend the ninth meeting of the Connecting Europe Facility corridors in Brussels from 5-9 December 2016.

The presence of the Regions in these meetings is essential, as the European Commission is already preparing the revision of the post-2020 corridors.

This review falls within the broader framework of the revision of the CEF regulation. Next spring, on based on the contributions of its Geographical Commissions, the CPMR will publish a proposal incorporating both the corridor routes and the amendments to be introduced in the regulation in order to take into better account the criterion of ‘accessibility’.