Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Region became a member of the CPMR Peripheral Maritime Regions Conference

Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Region is a member of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions from  current year.

The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions brings together more than 150 Regions from  24  States from the European Union and beyond.

Representing about 200 million people, the CPMR campaigns in favour of a more balanced development of the European territory. It operates both as a think tank and as a lobby for Regions.

Through its extensive network of contacts within the EU institutions and national governments the CPMR has, since its creation in 1973, been targeting its action towards ensuring that the needs and interests of its Member Regions are taken into account in policies with a high territorial impact.

It focuses mainly on social, economic and territorial cohesion, maritime policies and blue growth, and accessibility. European governance, energy and climate change, neighbourhood and development also represent important areas of activity for the association.

It is project-oriented, encouraging and helping the member regions to implement transnational cooperation projects, with the support of dedicated and focussed working groups, and – when relevant – of EU funding.

“Membership of this conference is very important for our region, that will give us more opportunities to share CPMR best practices (more than 40 years). Inclusion in the “Innovation Partnership”, based in the member regions of the organization, deepening maritime activities, tourism, trade relations and the "Blue Economy", this will further increase the competitiveness and level of development of our region”-stated the State Representative Alexander Motserelia.

Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti is a full member of the CPMR's political bureau. Full members of the Political Bureau attend meetings. Only Regions that are members of the Association may be members of a Geographical Commission.  Each Geographical Commission may set up working groups, take part in cooperation projects, or develop cooperation on technical or policy/political issues in line with their needs.

The organization has a memorandum of understanding with the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), the International Center for Black Sea Research (ICBSS) and the Black Sea Association of Maritime Institutions (BSAMI).  Member regions are: France, Portugal, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Turkey and other countries.

In October last year, the State Representative of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Alexander Motserelia attended the 47th General Assembly of CPMR. The international conference was held in Italy, in particular in Palermo. It was after this that the cooperation between Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region and "CPMR" started, which was finally joined by the organization of the region. After   that the cooperation between Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region and "CPMR" started and finally Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti joined it.

 In the near future, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Region will host the CPMR Conference in Anaklia and Poti.