Brussels, 01/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Greens are worried about the fate of the extremely remote regions, which they feel have been abandoned by the proposals of the European Commission for the cohesion policy over the period 2014-2020.
The MEP Catherine Grèze (Greens/EFA, France), a member of the committee on regional development (REGI) with responsibility for the extremely remote regions on behalf of the Greens Group, met a delegation of unionists, non-government organisations and ecologists from overseas in Brussels on Thursday 1 December and fleshed out the Greens' position on the extremely remote regions. She lamented the drastic cuts in European funding for the forthcoming programming period for the cohesion policy. At this stage of negotiations on the structural funds, the cut will be at a level of 44%. The Greens believe it must be ensured that the extremely remote regions use the money, instead of cutting money which is unused. The Azores, the Canary Islands, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Madeira, Martinique, St Martin and Reunion are regions which benefit from a specific regime in European funding to compensate for the handicap of their geographical location, which geographically cuts them off from the Union. (MD/transl.fl)