The Government of the Azores has "a strong presence, visibility and leadership in the Europe of Regions and foreign affairs," stated the Under Secretary for European Affairs and External Cooperation today.

The information was provided today by Rodrigo Oliveira at the Legislative Assembly during the debate of the proposal for Regional Annual Plan and Budget  for next year.

As an example of this leading position, Rodrigo Oliveira mentioned that the Government of the Azores has been in "in the forefront of the creation of cooperation spaces and opportunities for the assertion of the Region” over the last year, being the founding member of the global network "R20 - Regions for Climate Action" and the “Pact of Islands.”

For the government official, these two spaces not only represent "commitments of relevant institutional importance, but also ways of attracting investment and privileged access to funding."

As he mentioned, the Azores have also taken part in the “most important discussions” of the Europe of Regions, bringing to the Region some of the most important meetings of inter-regional bodies cooperation, such as the CPMR Political Bureau, which brings together 160 regions, and the ARE General Assembly that gathered 270 regions  in the Azores last week.

Regarding the "Atlantic area," Rodrigo Oliveira stressed the "innovative and decisive steps"  the Azores have taken when signed the creation of the "Summit of Macaronesian Archipelagos,” a forum whose technical works, currently led by Cape Verde, " will provide a new stimulus to the multilateral relations of this important island space that is also close to us.

Also in the field of external cooperation, the Regional Under Secretary announced for 2012 “new steps for Canadian provinces, through the development of political cooperation prospects with Manitoba and Ontario and the implementation of the recently signed cooperation agreement between the Azores and Quebec, a mobility and professional traineeship convention under the Eurodyssey programme.”

In the specific context of EU affairs, the government official stated that the Government’s “commitment to defend the interests of the Azores" is recognised, adding that the Region contributed to the drafting of structuring documents in 2011, such as the Strategy for the Atlantic, Solbes report on "The ORs and the Internal Market" or the proposals on the future of EU cohesion policy.

Concerning the latter, Rodrigo Oliveira added that “we were pleased to see the recognition of the Azores and the Outermost Regions, whether in the maintenance of the maximum co-financing rate or in the specific allocation under the ERDF programme for the ORs’ additional costs.”

The Regional Under Secretary also added that next year, with the presidency of the Conference of the ORs, the Azores will continue "its commitment to work towards the improvement and defence of our interests, the legislative proposals for the 2014-2020 framework, with special emphasis on the Commission’s Communication on Outermost regions to be presented in the first half of 2012."