The Regional Under Secretary for European Affairs and External Cooperation, Rodrigo Oliveira, participated in the meeting of the Regional Development Commission of the European Parliament this week. This event was held to discuss the Regulations on the EU Cohesion Policy for the 2014-2020 period.

The meeting was also attended by the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Johannes Hahn, who was questioned by the coordinators of all political groups as well as by the rapporteurs responsible for the European Parliament's position on these Regulations.

At the end of the meeting, the Regional Under Secretary conveyed his "satisfaction with the fact that the questions posed by the MEPs to the Commissioner are in line with the concerns of the Regional Government, particularly those related to macroeconomic conditionality, thematic concentration, importance of supporting SMEs, the need to make the enforcement of regulations more flexible and the promotion of a true involvement of Regions in drafting partnership contracts to be established between the Commission and each Member State."

Rodrigo Oliveira took the opportunity to contact with the Azorean and Madeira MEPs that are also members of the aforementioned Parliamentary Commission, Paulo Alves and Luis Nuno Teixeira.

MEP Nuno Teixeira also attended the meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Conference of Presidents of Outermost Regions, presided over by the Azores. The meeting was held on Thursday in Brussels, where he presented his draft report "on the role of cohesion policy in EU outermost regions in the context of Europe 2020."

This report, which is expected to be approved at the plenary session of the European Parliament in April, retakes some of the positions taken by the Conference of Presidents of Outermost Regions, including the 2009 and 2010 Memoranda. The latter memorandum also includes the States where the Outermost Regions are located - Portugal, Spain and France - and several joint contributions on sectoral policies.

At the end of the meeting, the Regional Under Secretary for European Affairs and External Cooperation conveyed his satisfaction with Nuno Teixeira' willingness to meet with the Conference Monitoring Committee and to work closely with the Conference of Presidents of Outermost Regions in the development of his report.