The President of the Government of the Azores meets Thursday with the President of the European Commission in Brussels. During the meeting, Vasco Cordeiro will reiterate to Jean-Claude Juncker the importance of maintaining a strong Cohesion Policy in the regions after 2020.
 
The future of the main Community investment policy in the regions will be one of the key topics on the agenda of the meeting between Vasco Cordeiro, who also chairs the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR), and Jean-Claude Juncker. It will take place at the Berlaymont building, the headquarters of the European Commission.
 
The President of the Government has recently urged the European Commission for the need to correct the lack of references to the Cohesion Policy and the co-financing rates of Structural Funds for investments in its new strategy for Outermost Regions (ORs).
 
Regarding the recent Communication "A Reinforced and Renewed Strategic Partnership with Outermost Regions of the European Union," Vasco Cordeiro says it would be expected that the Junker Commission would clearly reiterate certain core principles of the Community policy for these regions, such as the role of Cohesion Policy in overcoming the specific and structural difficulties they face.
 
In this meeting, scheduled for 11 AM, Vasco Cordeiro will be accompanied by several leaders from European regions, namely France, Italy, Germany and Sweden.
 
Since September 2014, Vasco Cordeiro has held the Presidency of CPMR, an interregional cooperation organisation that includes about 160 regions from 28 European states, congregating nearly 200 million citizens.
 
The mission of CPRM 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.