"The Regional Under Secretary of the Presidency for External Relations met in Brussels with MEP Younous Omarjee, the official in charge of preparing the EU Parliament's report on "Optimising the potential of outermost regions by creating synergies between the EU Structural Funds and other EU programmes."

During the meeting, Rodrigo Oliveira congratulated French MEP for this report and noted the relevancy of its discussion and approval before the end of the current parliamentary term. In this context, the Regional Under Secretary recalled that the European Parliament has decided not to issue its opinion on the Communication submitted by the 2012 Commission titled as "The ORs: Partnership towards a partnership for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth."
This fact reinforces the pertinence of this report in "promoting the debate at the Parliament and raise the awareness of institutions for the specificities of ORs in the European context."

Under the preparation of the document, which will be soon discussed and voted at the Parliament Commission, the Conference of Presidents of ORs has conveyed to MEP Omarjee the concerns of Outermost Region, following the consultation between Regions. These concerns encompass some issues that are specific to the Azores, such as the compensation for farmers after the end of the milk quota system which, as Rodrigo Oliveira conveyed, are expected to be accepted and approved in the final report.

In addition to the work developed in the context of the Conference of Presidents, the Regional Government had the opportunity of conveying several proposals intended to improve the report originally proposed by Omarjee to the Portuguese MEPs that make up the Commission in charge of discussing the report.

Therefore, the Regional Under Secretary of the Presidency for External Relations stressed the importance of these proposals to reinforce the legal basis, the specific nature and distinction of ORs in relation to other territorial realities. Additionally, they allow the introduction of joint positions and claims, and demonstrate the diversity of ORs.

In this regard, the Regional Under Secretary expressed the Regional Government's appraisal for the collaboration spirit conveyed by MEP Omarjee, either directly with the Regional Government or with the Conference of Presidents of the Outermost Regions, and for his willingness to welcome numerous amendment proposals to the report. "