The Regional Assistant Secretary of the Presidency for External Relations expressed in Brussels his "great satisfaction" with the fact that the Committee of the Regions has approved two dozen proposals for amendments to the opinions submitted by the Government of the Azores.
 
For Rui Bettencourt, this is "an exceptional case at the Committee of the Region and at this plenary session." In this context, he stressed the fact that "several regions that are not outermost regions have understood the importance of these regions in the European Union" and the fact that the plenary of European regions issue opinions "that focus on the relevance on outermost regions in the European whole."
 
"There are nine outermost regions participating in a meeting attended by more than 350 regions from across Europe," said the government official. As he noted, it was "very interesting and very important" to have worked closely with partners from different regions that are not outermost regions, but who "regard remoteness as an important issue for Europe of today. "
 
The Secretary for External Relations also stressed that this plenary session of the Committee of the Regions is "exception in many ways." In fact, we are at "a moment when a number of Community policies are being reformulated and constructed," particularly the Multiannual Financial Framework, which will run between 2021 and 2027, and these policies "address a number of important matters for the Azores."
 
The amendments proposed by the Azorean Government, now approved by this EU advisory body, concern opinions on the Multiannual Financial Framework Package for 2021-2027, the Connecting Europe Mechanism, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and Europe Horizon - 9th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. They are intended to draw attention to the particular situation of the Outermost Regions and, in this case, the Azores.
 
Rui Bettencourt considered that the amendments now adopted "have a very significant impact on Community policies for the Azores and the Outermost Regions," such as agriculture. According to him, there has been an amendment to the opinion that the Committee of the Regions will issue to the European Commission and the European Parliament on POSEI, indicating that "POSEI has to be maintained and cannot have cuts."
 
In addition to agriculture, fisheries, sea, science and accessibility are other areas covered by the Azores' proposals, drawing attention to the specificities and weaknesses of the Outermost Regions as well as to their statute; the latter allows the adoption of specific measures for these regions in accordance with Article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.