Among the raft of new projects and initiatives announced by the European Commission in its new strategy for remote regions on Tuesday 24 0ctober, the institution plans to set up a platform to improve exchanges among outermost regions (OR) and national and European authorities, including the European Commission.
Following its adoption by the College of Commissioners the same say, the strategy was unveiled to the European Parliament by Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Crețu and Younous Omarjee MEP (GUE/NGL, France) on the margins of the plenary at a press conference. Contacted by EUROPE, Omarjee recognised that the new strategy went in the right direction and granted a greater role to Article 349 of the TFEU, which covers the specific nature of the outermost regions, a point he had himself made in an own-initiative report (see EUROPE 11799). The MEP stressed the need, however, to actually implement this strategy.
There are a raft of proposals. In addition to the platform, the European Commission wants to boost governance as a whole, improving the consideration of the outermost regions’ views in impact analyses and assessment of EU policies. The Commission wants to set up with the European Investment Bank a special initiative for boosting access to the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) for OR. It is considering carrying out a study to boost the attribution of the European Fund for Regional Development to OR. Most importantly, the European Commission wishes to re-evaluate whether a similar attribution based on the same model could be set up for the European Social Fund (ESF).
With respect to the blue economy, the institution foresees special measures and modalities, such as a specially adapted compensation system for OR in new programmes in order to support the sustainable development of fisheries and other sectors connected to the blue economy. To this end, the institution proposes to set up a dialogue and exchange of information forum on fisheries and maritime issues with OR, member states and stakeholders. The Commission is considering allowing state aid for the building of new fishing vessels, which would require adjustments to the guidelines on state aid for fisheries.
In terms of agriculture and rural development, the European Commission is planning to maintain the Programme of Options Specifically related to Remoteness and Insularity - POSEI, which aims to boost the economic competitiveness of farming in these regions (which often suffer from geographical handicaps, difficult climate, and large economic dependence on non-EU countries). The Commission wants to maintain special measures in the European Fund for Agriculture and Rural Development (EFRD) for OR. Here, it says it is planning to assess by 1 January 2019 the situation of EU banana producers in an assessment of how the banana stabilisation mechanism functions.
In the field of climate change, the European Commission is planning to boost the OR’s role in the LIFE programme, the EU instrument for the environment and climate, in order to prepare the regions for severe weather as part of the 2018-20 adjusting to climate change programme. Here, the institution is planning to launch a preparatory project on adjusting to climate change for 2019. Most importantly, an annex to the strategy announces the implementation of the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) in outermost regions as part the 2017-18 ex-post assessment.
Interestingly, the European Commission is planning to launch a specific initiative to coordinate aid, worth €4 million, as part of its Horizon 2020 work programme with the aim of boosting outermost regions’ capacity to participate in the European Union’s research framework programme.
Other aspects include: - a plan to monitor changes to the integration of OR’s results in the EU internal market through a specific tool on the single market dashboard; - the assessment of local or national state aid measures for deploying broadband in the digital domain; - the desire to improve competitiveness by allowing EU investments in OR ports; - planned aid for start-ups of new air routes in future assessments of the current rules on state aid for aviation; - taking better account of trade opportunities for regions in international agreements while taking account of migration concerns when negotiating such agreements.
The strategy will now be presented on Friday 27 October at the Council of Presidents of Outermost Regions in French Guyana. This will be attended by the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)