At the end of last year – at the Conference of Presidents meetings on 11. December – the list of the officially approved (and funded) Intergroups in the European Parliament was given the final stamp of approval. In all 28 different Intergroups got the stamp of approval, one of these being the Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas Intergroup.

It will carry on and further develop the work led under the Seas and Coastal Areas Intergroup, Gesine Meissner from Germany is the new President of the Intergroup that met for the first time in Strasbourg on 15 January 2015.

Members of the Intergroup also voted for the Vice-Presidents responsible for thematic and geographic priorities that will include the sea basin strategies and the island dimension. Different political groups and nationalities will contribute to the work of this renewed Intergroup.

Camille Dressler, Vice President of ESIN says: “this is very good news, and means that we can start working with the Intergroup on the issues that are most important to ESIN and its members, and which we flagged up with our Island Champion Pledge initiative during last year’s EU parliament elections.”

You will find a detailed presentation of the Intergroup here: http://www.crpm.org/pub/agenda/2626_bilan-intergroupe.pdf.

I am happy to say that one of the founders of this Intergroup, Croatian MEP Tonio Picula, recently ordered a copy of my book.