Brussels, 12/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - With just a few weeks to go to the beginning of the French presidency of the EU, the Secretary of State for overseas affairs, Yves Jégo, met up with other EU member states representatives responsible for “marine-dependent” territories. The meeting sought to put forward the orientations of the French presidency on helping overseas territories. Meeting participants also included European Commissioner, Danuta Hübner, in charge of regional policy, and her counterpart for development, Louis Michel.
Up until now, European policies have focused on compensating the disadvantages of these territories. Without wishing to question the benefits gained by this compensation, participants were keen to point out that they ought to highlight the territories' own advantages and undeniable potential. In a press release, Mr Jégo affirmed, “these territories constitute the outposts of Europe in the world. Linked constitutionally to member states of the European Union, these territories have these states' language, history and culture”.
During the meeting, the principle of two common contributions on the future of European policies was agreed to on the Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT). France, Spain and Portugal will make a joint contribution on the ultra remote regions (fore example, Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique, Réunion, Saint-Barthélémy and Saint Martin for France). The contribution will highlight the six following major components: exemplarity, complementarity, competitiveness, specificities, accessibility and surplus value for the outermost regions for the European Union.
The contribution on Overseas Countries and Territories (Mayotte, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna for France) will also involve France, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It will aim to highlight the convergence between all European OCT through the different statuses that exist. Member states also called on the Commission to look at how the Caribbean could become a proto-type region for a regional cooperation platform that includes the Union, States, Outermost regions and OCT, as well as the regional organisations themselves.
Yves Jégo was particularly keen to underline the issue of improving accessibility or “territorial continuity”, which remains “a priority objective on which all our other goals depend”. A specific mentioned was made by Mr Jégo to his counterparts about the need to define conditions on how air transport could be assisted on both a service and infrastructure level. He also stressed that better maritime accessibility would facilitate a more concrete and improved insertion of these territories into their environment and reduce their isolation. The question of aid for implementing regional maritime connections will be studied in the contribution on the outermost regions. (O.L./trans.r.h)