EU to forge new partnership with 'regions of opportunity'

摘要

In October or November 2008, the European Commission will present a new communication on partnership with the EU's outermost regions (Azores, Canaries, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Madeira, Martinique and Reunion). It will respond to the request formulated by the European Council in December last year. A conference, which took place in Brussels on 14 and 15 May, allowed the expectations of the regions in question to be established. And their expectations are numerous. Because though the ORs are the first to acknowledge the validity of the strategy for outermost regions defined by the EU in 2004 (improving accessibility, improving competitiveness, better integration into their geographic area), they nonetheless complain that the existing legal basis in the treaty (Article 299, Paragraph 2) to justify specific actions for them "is used minimally" and that there are potentials to be developed and exploited. Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Huebner said nothing to contradict this by expressing her feeling that "the moment has come to change the way we deal with the outermost regions". There is "new impetus to be given" to OR policies.