Brussels, 05/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - "First and foremost, the extremely remote regions represent an opportunity for Europe", the Commissioner responsible for the coordination of issues related to the extremely remote regions within all Community policies, Danuta Hübner, told the XIth Conference of the Presidents of the Extremely Remote Regions on Monday. Shortly afterwards, Ms Hübner confirmed the Commission's commitment "to taking account of the specific nature of the extremely remote regions within reinforced partnerships". She also reminded her audience of the actions recently carried out by the Commission in favour of the extremely remote regions and took stock of the dossiers with the greatest impact on the future of these regions: the reform of the cohesion policy, the reform of the sugar and banana markets, fisheries, the reform of State aid for regional purposes, research and development of information and communication technologies. During this conference, which was held on 3 and 4 September in Réunion Saint-Denis under the chairmanship of Paul Vergès, the president of the regional Council of La Réunion, Ms Hübner also took part in a seminar on "the maritime dimension of the EU and the contribution of the extremely remote regions", the results of which will feed into reflections on the forthcoming Green Paper of the Commission on maritime policy. Together with the Prefect of the region, Laurent Cayrel, she also took the opportunity to visit several projects which are being co-funded under the Structural Funds.