The President of the Regional Government met today with the President of France, the President of the Government of Spain and the Prime Minister of Portugal. According to Vasco Cordeiro, this was "a historical meeting of great political significance," taking into account that we are about to enter a decisive phase in the negotiations with Brussels regarding the Multiannual Financial Framework for the post-2020 period.
 
Vasco Cordeiro attended the meeting with the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, the President of the Government of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, and the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, in the context of the Conference of Presidents of the Outermost Regions of Europe, currently chaired by the Canary Islands.
 
According to the President of the Regional Government, this high-level meeting was a "very important step" towards the recognition of the importance of Outermost Regions in the European Union, pointing out the example of the Sea as these regions confer an oceanic and international dimension to Europe.
 
At the meeting held in the Belgian capital, Emmanuel Macron, Mariano Rajoy and António Costa received the Declaration signed by the Presidents of the nine Portuguese, French and Spanish Outermost Regions on the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework. The document warns that the forthcoming European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) must be endowed the necessary financial resources, while maintaining the current co-financing rates.
 
Given that the European Commission intends to present its proposal for the next Community budget in May, this Declaration calls for the European Council to support a Cohesion Policy as the main investment policy in these regions, an ambitious tool that will cover all European regions.
 
The document also calls for the maintenance of the same percentages of the current budget in the future Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies and the consideration of the specificities of Outermost Regions.
 
In addition, the Conference of Presidents of the Outermost Regions defends the "full implementation of the commitments taken under the new European strategy for ORs and their further development in the context of post-2020 reforms. This is particularly important to reduce the accessibility deficit, reinforce competitiveness, through growth and employment, and improve regional integration."
 
The Declaration also recalls that ORs are constitute a unique European regional reality with specific features recognised in the Treaty on European Union itself. This fact allows the Council to adopt specific provisions aimed at adapting the implementation of European legislation to these regions; its scope has been confirmed by the Judgement of the EU Court of Justice on December 15, 2015.
 
During his visit to Brussels, the President of the Government also participated in the plenary session of the Committee of the Regions. On occasion of a European debate about the future of Cohesion Policy, he defended that there is "a risk of regarding this meeting as just a discussion on financial resources that only concerns certain European regions."
 
"This is not true insofar as this discussion concerns the European project itself and all Europeans. It has to do with the very idea of Europe that we want," said Vasco Cordeiro. In this context, he defended the need to "present solutions or to support those who present solutions" in order to solve the issues arising from the reduction of resources in the next Community budget and urge EU institutions to advocate for more policies.
 
"The credibility of the position we have defended also involves, first of all, the support to the Members States that have already presented solutions, such as increasing the contributions of each country. This is one of the possible ways in which our credibility can also be strengthened," said the President of the Government.