Regional Director for European Affairs defends that ensuring privileged access to new EU initiatives is crucial for Outermost Regions
The Regional Director for European Affairs defended in Brussels that ensuring "privileged and timely access" to information on new European Union initiatives is crucial for Outermost Regions.
Célia Azevedo spoke on the sidelines of the meeting of the Tripartite Working Group, composed of representatives of the European Commission, Member States and Outermost Regions, which meets in the context of the European Union Strategy for Outermost Regions. On the occasion, she emphasised the importance of these meetings as they stem from a stronger partnership between the Outermost Regions and the European Commission.
For the Regional Director, these meetings are also essential "to ensure that the specific characteristics of the Outermost Regions are duly taken into consideration and safeguarded, so as to enable these regions to have access, namely to funds, under more favourable conditions, according to the provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union."
Célia Azevedo also mentioned that the meeting "was particularly relevant for the sectors under discussion - energy and transport - both essential for the Azores. Accordingly, it is clearly important to ensure that our interests are considered and that the projects to be developed in the Region are supported by the European Union."
The Regional Director stated that the meeting mainly focused on the energy and transport sectors. In the first case, it addressed the possibilities arising from the NESOI (New Optimised Energy Solutions for the Islands) project, which will be developed in the context of the "Clean Energy for European Islands" initiative. As for the second case, it focused on the new project and funding opportunities for the Outermost Regions, through the Connecting Europe Facility for transport in the 2021-2027 programming period.
At this meeting, participants also discussed matters pertaining to the Conference of Presidents of the Outermost Regions to take place in February in Saint-Martin and the 5th Forum of the Outermost Regions to be held in March in Brussels, having also analysed the progress of the negotiations on the future multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027.