The Government of the Azores expressed today his satisfaction with the recognition of the Court of Justice of the European Union concerning the reinforcement of the legal value of the statute of Outermost Regions (ORs) and its precedence over sectoral treaty provisions.

"In the Ruling that was made public today, the Court of Justice acknowledges Article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) as the legal basis that underpins the decisions to be taken by institutions when adopting specific measures to benefit Outermost Regions. This represents a clear victory so that all those, like the Azorean Government, have always defended the validity of the statute of ORs as political and legal foundation," stressed the Regional Under Secretary of the Presidency for External Relations.

For Rodrigo Oliveira, "this decision is even more relevant when we know that the European Commission and the European Parliament have sought to devalue and dismiss the use of Article 349, replacing it as the legal basis for legislative proposals by other articles of the treaties, which was the case of the case that ended now."

Given the inclusion of the French territory of Mayotte in the group of Outermost Regions in 2014, it was necessary to amend several European directives and regulations in order to extend the territorial application of the respective schemes to this new OR.

"In its proposals, the European Commission has not invoked Article 349 and used sectoral legal bases to support these amendments," said Rodrigo Oliveira. The government official added that "ORs have never agreed with this position and they have expressed on several occasions, namely in the Final Declaration of Conference of Presidents, that Article 349 of TFEU is the appropriate and sufficient legal basis for the adaptation of EU law to our Regions. "
During the legislative process and in accordance with the position of ORs, the Council has finally amended the legal basis of the proposals for Article 349, the base on which those amendments were to be adopted.

The European Commission and the European Parliament, opposing the use of the ORs statute, have filed five cases to the Court of Justice in 2014 with the purpose of contesting the Council's option and requesting the annulment of directives and regulations.

The Government of the Azores was established as agent in the process, "to keep pace with close proximity to the position of Portugal, to intervene in the process, as well as Spain and France, in defence of the status of the outermost regions and in support of the Council," said Rodrigo Oliveira.
 
The Ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, known today and delivered under the joint cases C-132/14 and C-136/14, defends that Article 349 is a special law with limited geographical application. Therefore, it has priority over other legal bases, particular when the EU legislator wants to adopt specific measures for the specific situation of ORs.

"This ruling significantly reinforces the statute of Outermost Regions, which is mainly based on Article 349. It will become another milestone and future reference in similar situations against all those, including several institutions and bodies, that tend to devalue the specific and unique territorial reality of ORs as well as the measures and programmes designed for them," said Rodrigo Oliveira.