Brussels, 23/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 19 and 20 October, Danuta Hübner, the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, took part in the Conference of the Presidents of the Outermost Regions, which was held in Guadeloupe. This year, the conference, which was chaired by Victorin Lurel, President of the Guadeloupe Regional Council, allowed the most remote regions take stock of their common problems. Also taking part in the event were representatives of Reunion, Martinique, Guyana, the Canaries, the Azores and Madeira. “The best way for these regions to turn their geographical position to the good is to develop cooperation projects with their neighbours,” said Ms Hübner during the Conference.
She also pointed out that the outermost regions “represent the EU in their respective environments, far from the European continent and close to America, Africa and the Caribbean”. She welcomed the progress which should make it possible to coordinate the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), for which the outermost regions are eligible, and the European Development Fund (EDF), which non-EU neighbouring regions benefit from. She said that, since the last Conference of the Presidents, a year ago on the Island of Reunion, a great many initiatives had been taken to help overcome the regions' handicaps, particularly: - additional aid of €278.8 million for agriculture in the outermost regions to support banana production (the POSEI programme); - the possibility of retaining, exceptionally, public aid for the fishing fleet until the end of the year; - account being taken of the interests of these regions in new trade agreements between the EU and the ACP countries which will be concluded before 1st January 2008; - action to combat illegal immigration (European Border Control Agency operations); - a methodology put by the Commission to Member States and the regions to make it easier to assess the additional costs for outermost regions.
Beyond these specific actions, the most remote regions will continue to receive substantial support from the 2007-2013 Structural Fund. Ms Hübner said that Member States and the regions were in the preparatory phase for operational programmes for the next planning period and that the Commission would decide as quickly as possible in the course of 2007. The thrust of these programmes will be competitiveness and innovation, areas in which it is very much in the interest of the outermost regions to invest.
This was the Commissioner's first visit to Guadeloupe. Alongside the Conference of the Presidents, she met the Regional Prefect Jean-Jacques Brot, who represents the management authority for funded programmes in Guadeloupe, and members of the Regional Assembly. She also visited two projects, co-funded by the ERDF: the Jarry port installations and the underwater digital connection project, linking five Caribbean islands. Between 2000 and 2006, €834 million were allocated to Guadeloupe from the Structural Fund. The unemployment level of the region is 26% and its GDP is 67.32% of the Community average. (ol)