Tallinn, 17/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commissioner for Regional Development, Johannes Hahn, will join the Presidents of Europe's Outermost Regions on 18 October for their annual conference on the French island of Reunion. The Commissioner and the respective presidents will be discussing the action plans for these regions presented three months ago, on the optimum use of European structural funds. In this connection, he asserted that Action Plans have encouraged a shift in perception: saying that we are no longer defining the Outermost Regions by their handicaps but by their many assets and advantages as well. He hopes that these plans are included in the partnership agreement and programmes. The Commissioner will also be travelling to Mayotte, despite the fact that the island does not have the status of an outermost region until 1 January 2014. He pointed out that Mayotte will have to confront a number of major challenges particularly with regard to speeding up preparations on how EU investments are to be used and to make sure there is the capacity to spend and administer the greatly increased funds available. (MD/trans.fl)