The President of the Government warned that the European Commission's budget to finance investment projects in the area of transport is almost exhausted, when only four years have passed since the entry into force of the current financial programming period.
 
"We are not satisfied with the allocation assigned to peripheral regions and islands regarding the implementation of the European Union's Connecting Europe Facility," said Vasco Cordeiro, who also chairs the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR). According to him, "the majority of the budget allocated by CEF for the development of transport projects in the current programming period has already been exhausted."
 
The Connecting Europe Facility is a key EU funding tool to promote growth, employment and competitiveness through specific investments in infrastructure, including transport.
 
At the opening of the 45th General Assembly of CPMR in Helsinki, Finland, Vasco Cordeiro stated that Junker Commission's intention to strengthen the transport policy in the future "is good news" for Outermost Regions, but warned that this cannot be achieved at the expense of Cohesion Policy for the regions.
 
The President of the Government delivered the opening speech of the highest body of CPMR at a session attended by more than 240 delegates, including presidents of regions and elected politicians from all over Europe. He took the opportunity to restate that regions are essential in the process of changing the European project for one focused on economic strengthening as well as on economic and social cohesion between all territories.
 
"Our message to the Commission, to the member states and to other institutions is clear: regions play a central role in the European project, they are a powerful asset for the European Union and they are the key to many responses to the challenges that Europe faces," said the President of the Government.
 
The reform of the Cohesion Policy was another central theme in the speech delivered by Vasco Cordeiro. He considered that this Community investment in the regions "is under threat" in light of the Commission's new priorities, such as security and terrorism, debates on Brexit and the reform of the EU Budget.
 
"A modernised post-2020 Cohesion Policy is crucial to overcome regional disparities, to boost employment and growth and to be at the heart of the EU's strategy for a reformed Europe. Neither we, as representatives of the regions of Europe, nor our citizens will accept nothing less than this," warned Vasco Cordeiro.
 
In September 2014, Vasco Cordeiro was elected President of CPMR, an interregional cooperation organisation that comprises 160 regions from 28 European states and congregates 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.
 
The CPMR has several working groups on specific themes of interest to maritime regions. It is divided into six geographic commissions (Islands, Atlantic Arc, North Sea, Baltic Sea, Intermediterranean, Balkans and Black Sea).