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ACTIVITIES / DOCUMENTS > External cooperation

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CPMR action

The CPMR is fighting for :

 

Suitable programmes - Improved cooperation between its Regions

At EU level
    Neighbourhood policy

The CPMR is arguing that interregional cooperation provides added value to the Union's neighbourhood policy. Decentralised cooperation is an innovative and useful means of strengthening both the economic and democratic dimension of partnerships.

  • With the Inter-Mediterranean Commission, the CPMR is working on the Euro-Mediterranean partnership in the framework of the Barcelona process and Union for the Mediterranean.
  • With its North Sea and Baltic Sea Commissions, it is examining the Union's northern dimension.
  • With its Balkans and Black Sea Commission, it is working to strengthen links in this strategic eastern area.
  • With the seven European outermost regions, the CPMR is working hard to promote better integration of outermost regions and bring the European Union into their regional environments (along the African coasts, in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean).
    Development Policy

Many of the CPMR’s member Regions implement development aid policies targeted at partner Regions and territories in what we know as ‘developing’ countries. It is important for the CPMR to assist its Regions and promote their action with the EU institutions to ensure they are given greater recognition and supported through EU policies and programmes. In this regard, the CPMR is working directly with DG Development. Furthermore, it has joined forces with the main European associations of local and regional authorities (CEMR, AER, etc.) to set up together a “European Platform of Regional/Local Authorities for Development”. This initiative is backed by the European Commission. The aim of the platform is to become the Commission’s chief contact on all issues related to EU development policies and to help active Regions and cities to share their experiences and good practices in this field. The CPMR acts as a mouthpiece for the Regions within this platform and is promoting the “territorial approach” to development.

CPMR-UNDP Cooperation: tools to promote a territorial dimension to development

In 2005, the CPMR began exchanging views with the UNDP to build a partnership that would help achieve the Millennium Development Goals adopted in New York in September 2005. A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the CPMR and UNDP. It is based on 4 objectives:

  • a political objective to encourage the emergence of a worldwide organisation to represent the regions,
  • a territorial objective to foster cooperation between regions on the five continents,
  • a horizontal objective to ensure the regions’ involvement and quality of their cooperation activities,
  • promotion of a territorial approach to development.

One of the instruments contributing towards this final objective is the ART GOLD programme (support to territorial and thematic networks for local governance and development). This initiative promotes a new type of multilateralism in which the United Nations system works with governments to promote the active participation of regional authorities and local communities from the South and the North. ART has adopted the Millennium Development Goals.

ART GOLD is an international cooperation initiative that brings together programmes and activities of several United Nations agencies including UNDP, UNESCO, UNIFEM, WHO and UNOPS.
It promotes a new type of multilateralism in which the United Nations system works with governments to promote the active participation of regional authorities and local communities from the South and the North. ART has adopted the Millennium Development Goals.

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Expressing the opinion of peripheral maritime regions on the international stage

This is vital for dealing with certain global issues :

- Maritime safety

The CPMR has secured observer status on :

  • the OSPAR Commission (Oslo/Paris conventions for the protection of the marine environment in the North-East Atlantic); its North Sea Geographical Commission acts as the representative;
  • The Helsinki Commission on the protection of the marine environment of the Baltic Sea area (HELCOM), via the Baltic Sea Commission,
  • The International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC). The Devon County Council acts as the representative.

The regions are thus kept informed about the work of these organisations, which are themselves sensitive to regional issues.

- Sustainable development

International action is necessary, because pollution has no respect for national borders. The CPMR has therefore decided to become a member of the Network of Regional Government for Sustainable Development. It was set up at the Johannesburg Summit in 2002 in order to respond to the need to "think globally, act locally".

NRG4SD has member regions from five continents, and aims :

  • to represent regions at international level,
  • to promote sustainable development at regional level,
  • to facilitate cooperation and the exchange of good practice between its members.

It is via this organisation that the CPMR is presenting its application to join the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

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Structuring the voice of regions throughout the world within a global organisation of regions

Organising regional participation:

Regions from all continents, working alongside national and international partners such as the European Union and United Nations, need to debate the new world context to set up a worldwide governance system that includes the regional tier, without which globalisation will not be an equitable process.

The fundamental role assumed by a worldwide organisation of regions should be to help ensure that all regions have fair development opportunities. This has been an underpinning principle for the construction of the EU over the past 30 years and has been one of the keystones of its success. It is therefore important today to promote this territorial cohesion principle at global level.

A first initiative was taken in 2002 during the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development which saw the creation of nrg4SD (Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development). The CPMR is a founder member of this organisation and acts as its Treasurer.

The FOGAR: Forum of Global Associations of Regions

In this context, the Forum of Global Associations of Regions was set up in March 2007 on the occasion of the 1st International Convention for a Territorial Approach to Development organised in Marseille by the CPMR, UNDP and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region. This is the first mouthpiece for the world’s regions within a globalised system.

The founding regional associations of this network signed a “Declaration of the Regions on their participation in the governance of globalization”.

The Forum presently has 17 members:

The CPMR’s President and Secretary General have been entrusted with the presidency and secretariat of the Forum.

List of FOGAR member networks

Its actions:

The Forum has three main lines of action:

  • Shaping and promoting a regional dimension for development strategies within States and continental or sub-continental groupings;
  • Supporting the competences of regional players to help them formulate and implement their development projects;
  • Exchanging good practices between Regions throughout the world with regard to regional development and participating in the globalisation process.

For more information on FOGAR's work: click here

Contacts :

  • Marie Imbs marie.imbs.fogar@gmail.com - tel : + 33 2 99 35 40 53
  • Xavier Gizard xavier.gizard.fogar@gmail.com
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