The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) and the Assembly of European Regions (AER) have recently paid tribute to Georges Pierret, who died in August. A French national (from Brittany), Pierret was one of the founders of the CPMR in 1973 in Saint-Malo (France), and of the AER, which in 1985 succeeded the Council of the Regions of Europe (CRE). He was the first secretary-general of the CPMR (1973 to 1995), which initially comprised 23 founding regions compared with 161 regions today, and the first secretary-general of the AER (1985 to 1992).