The Regional Under Secretary of the Presidency for External Relations defended in Luxembourg that the importance of the maritime and insular dimension of cross-border cooperation in Europe "cannot be undervalued and should even be reinforced by institutions in the context of their resources and territorial coverage."

 "The projects developed along the land borders of the Union by neighbouring regions and municipalities have provided an important and undeniable contribution in the construction of the European unity, for example, at the level of common infrastructures and better integration of economies," said Rodrigo Oliveira. In this context, the government official added that "the actions carried out by maritime regions or island regions with maritime borders are not less relevant in the context of the common challenges they share, from the environment to research and development, health, mobility, and the support to the competitiveness of companies."

 Rodrigo Oliveira spoke Wednesday in a debate on the territorial cooperation programmes of the European Union, which took place during the meeting of the Bureau of the Committee of the Regions. The government official participated in the meeting on behalf of the President of the Government, Vasco Cordeiro.

 In this debate, which marked the 25th anniversary of INTERREG programmes, the Regional Secretary also defended that "the cooperation between regions and cities of the European Union with their counterparts in third states should also be strengthened in an external dimension and in coordination with the neighbourhood policy, starting in the east and south borders, but without neglecting the potential of cooperation with the west border - the Atlantic maritime border."

 The meeting of the Bureau of the Committee of the Regions addressed the crisis in the milk sector. According to Rodrigo Oliveira, "the recognition of the severity of the situation was unanimous as well as the need to strengthen the Committee's action with European institutions regarding a series of proposals that were approved at the plenary session."

 The Regional Government introduced a series of amendments to defend regional production in report issued by the Committee of the Regions on "The future of the dairy sector," which were subsequently approved. These amendments concern the recognition of the need for "additional support to the POSEI programme in order to compensate milk producers for the impact caused by the deregulation of markets and to guarantee the maintenance of competitiveness of regional producers with regard to those from the remaining European space."