The Conference of Presidents of the Outermost Regions has presented to the European Union its contribution to the Green Paper titled “The EU development policy at the service of inclusive growth and sustainable development.”
The contribution of the ORs is based on four guidelines – “a strong-impact policy”; “an inclusive growth”; “a sustainable growth”; and “results in field of agriculture” – in which the Regions call the attention of institutions for the relevance of being closer, in the context of the EU development policy, to the “ACP” (Africa-Caribbean-Pacific) countries as well as to the countries included in the Neighbourhood Policy, such as Morocco or to non-member states with which the EU has established special partnerships, such as the case of Cape Verde.
Taking into account that “the cooperation for development represents an ethical duty of solidarity among peoples,” the Outermost Regions have established themselves as “active borders of the EU,” thus stressing the importance of their role as “true cooperation platforms of the European Union in the world,” mainly through the enhancement of their geostrategic position in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Amazonia and Indian Ocean.
There are several examples concerning the relevance of the geostrategic position and the privileged relations between the ORs and third countries in the “field of civil protection and rapid intervention in the case of natural catastrophes in which the Ors, given their vulnerability, have acquired experience and good practices that may be applied in other places.”
Considering that education is “one of the fundamental aspects of development” as well as scientific research in areas such as climate change, renewable energies, biodiversity, Information and Communication Technologies and the management of water resources, the reinforcement of the role played by Universities in the context of cooperation, particularly in the dissemination of innovation and good practices despite the fact that the “Universities of the ORs have long collaborated with higher education centres of third countries, mainly with Cape Verde.”
The Outermost Regions have also mentioned the importance of economic, social and cultural links of the ORs and, in this context, the EU support to the establishment and development of “air and maritime routes between the ORs and third countries that boost economic integration by increasing the circulation of people of goods,” and stressing the “combination and complementary perspective of destination for international tourism.”
In this context, the importance of the location and experience of the ORs is developed in the cooperation with neighbour territories, especially with regard to the territorial cooperation space Madeira-Azores-Canaries (MAC) and the relations with the Republic of Cape Verde, under which emphasis is given to the organisation of the “Summit of Macaronesia,” - which has recently established a political platform between the archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands and Cape Verde – as well as to the bilateral cooperation between the Azores and the latter Atlantic archipelago.
The Development Policy of the European Policy represents a fundamental axis of the EU external action which intends to combat poverty by celebrating partnership agreements and promoting cooperation with third countries in the context of sustainable development and the Millennium Goals, an area which the EU “continues to be the leading provider of support to development, having improved the situation of millions of people throughout the world.”
With regard to the development policy and the EU external action, the eight Outermost Regions that integrate the Conference (Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Réunion, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique and Saint-Martin) have presented their contribution to the consultation of the European Commission designated as “Which funding for the EU external action after 2013?”. This document contains the ORs’ assessment on the future funding framework in which they stress the need for a greater attention to the reality of Outermost Regions, mainly in the relation between the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Development Fund (EDF).