Brussels, 04/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 4 February, the European Parliament voted on a resolution on the island regions, to draw the European Commission's attention to the specific nature and disadvantages facing European islands.
The MEPs regret the fact that the characteristics and specific nature common to islands are not taken into account for the period 2014-2020, even though provision is made for this in Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and although these are “clearly” distinct from the characteristics of the continental regions.
In this framework, the MEPs call upon the Commission to: - clearly define the type of natural or demographic disadvantages of a permanent nature referred to in Article 174; - determine the specific instruments and resources of the cohesion policy to correct the disadvantages faced by islands; - clarify the resources it plans to implement to ensure that the conditions referred to in Article 174 are being respected; - take account of indicators other than GDP, to include the specific natures of island regions, such as the regional competitiveness index.
During the debates which preceded the vote, the last of these questions was the subject of many contributions from the floor by MEPs, like Rosa D'Amato (EFD, Italy), who referred to the case of Sardinia, which has a good GDP, but which suffers from a high unemployment rate and poor energy and digital connectivity. On this, European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu gave a cautious reply. “Unfortunately, the data are not currently accurate enough to reflect the specific natures of all island regions”, she acknowledged, going on to add that the Commission would invest in data collection in the framework of the forthcoming report on the cohesion policy. Several MEPs put forward the idea of including the human development index.
As well as managing flows of refugees, unemployment and a stagnating demography, one of the main points raised by the MEPs was island transport and the cost of this. Several MEPs referred to the case of the “double insularity” of certain archipelagos, such as the Azores, where the cost of internal transport is excessive and hinders the economic development of these islands. Others stressed the geographic isolation of certain islands, which can take up to 4 flights to reach Brussels. The commissioner kicked this point into touch, stating that the question of transport was a matter for the sovereignty of the member states. However, she referred to cases of best practice, such as France and Spain, which subsidise island transport.
A number of Greek MEPs, among them Nikolaos Chountis (GUE/NGL, Greece), also voiced concerns at the consequences of doing away with reduced VAT on the Greek islands. The MEP explained that the reduced rate of VAT had been set in place explicitly in order to offset the economic disadvantages of the Greek islands. He also added that provisions of this kind existed elsewhere in Europe. The commissioner said that as regards the Hellenic Republic, she had called for “extraordinary measures to be taken to tackle an extraordinary situation” and said that in her view, the Commission had “done everything it could for Greece”. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)