Brussels, 25/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - While acknowledging the advantages of the European Constitution (respect for regional self-government, recognition of the objective of territorial cohesion, the attention given to services of general economic interest etc), Europe's island regions have expressed their concern about the Commission's proposals for the future guidelines for regional state aid in a declaration adopted at the Islands Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR) Assembly on 14 and 15 April in Les Trois-Ilets (Martinique). In a press release, the island regions stated that the Commission proposals for the future guidelines on regional state aid penalise the Union's poorest regions, and also denounced the fact that no heed is paid to the specific situation of the islands. This is why the island regions are drawing the attention of the Member States and the European Institutions to the “risk of failure that could arise by wishing to ratify a treaty while at the same time drawing up policies that are diametrically opposed to the very principles that constitute some of its most significant and most welcome achievements”. The island regions are demanding that a differentiated system of state aid be applied to the islands in light of their greater economic, social and environmental vulnerability and the very specific context of island markets.