The President of the Government was unanimously re-elected President of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR), an inter-regional cooperation organisation that comprises 150 regions from 28 European countries, encompassing nearly 200 million citizens.
 
The election of Vasco Cordeiro for the 2016-2018 term took place during the meeting of the Political Bureau of CPMR - the political governing body that congregates one representative per state - under the 44th General Assembly of CPMR, which is taking place in Ponta Delgada at the invitation of the President of the Government.
 
The mission of CPMR is to defend the interests of its members within national and European institutions, through the promotion of territorial cohesion and regional power in Europe as well as through the reinforcement of the peripheral and maritime dimension of the European Union.    
     
In this sense, CPMR has developed a comprehensive work in the development of policies and influences with EU institutions, with special emphasis on Cohesion Policy, Integrated Maritime Policy and Transport Policies, Macro-regional Strategies and the Migration crisis; the latter has affected the European continent in recent times.
 
Vasco Cordeiro will be assisted by a First Vice-President and five Vice-Presidents. He will hold several powers: representation of the CPMR externally, especially with European institutions such as EU Commission and Parliament, convene and chair meetings of the General Assembly as well as of the Political Bureau of this organisation.
 
The names proposed by Vasco Cordeiro for the positions of Vice-President, also unanimously approved by the Political Bureau, are as follows: Gunn Marit Helgesen (Norway), as First Vice-president and treasurer of CPMR, while George Alexakis (Greece), Annika Annerby Jansson (Sweden), Enrico Rossi (Italy), Horia Teodorescu (Romania) and Rogier Van Der Sande (Netherlands) will take over the remaining five vice-presidencies.