Brussels, 21/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The EP's regional development committee (REGI) has sent the European Commission a clear message: there is no question of abandoning the outermost regions (OR), which need a high level of funding as part of the next multiannual financial framework. On Tuesday 20 March, MEPs from the REGI committee voted in favour of the own-initiative report of Nuno Teixeira (EPP, Portugal) on “the role of cohesion policy in the outermost regions of the European Union in the context of the EUROPE 2020 strategy”. This report may be drawn on by the European Commission in its work and it is planning to publish a communication on the subject in May. Teixeira does not regard the budget proposed by the Commission positively, which reduces allocations from the European Regional Development Fund planned for the OR. His report stipulates that the OR should benefit from a co-funding rate of up to 85% and suggests that funding be accorded on the basis of other criteria and not exclusively those pertaining to per capita GDP. In her comments on the REGI committee vote, Catherine Greze (Greens/EFA, France) considers that her counterparts “sent a clear message to the European Commission: review its proposals on budgetary and trade issues. Budget cuts as part of the Commission proposals for a multi annual financial framework are particularly worrying, given the scale of the social, environmental, economic and financial crisis overseas: the European Commission has also proposed a cut in additional funding to the OR of 46%.” (MD/transl.fl)