Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-19-Speech-1-170"
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"en.20080519.26.1-170"2
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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Commission’s assessment of the stronger partnership for the outermost regions is one-sided to say the least, and it fails to convey all the difficulties experienced on the ground. Nonetheless, reducing their accessibility deficit, making them more competitive and achieving regional integration remain appropriate goals that reflect the priorities of these regions.
Thank you in advance for your support in tomorrow’s vote.
The familiar image of the Azores, the Canary Islands, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Madeira, Martinique and Reunion as regions subsidised by Community or national funds, without consideration for the positive impact of such funding, is insufficiently offset by the genuine added value they contribute to the Union in environmental, cultural and geostrategic terms.
The Structural Funds are still contributing to the development of the outermost regions. I hope, however, that the Commission is steadily tailoring its current and future policies more closely to the realities of those regions in order to address the permanent constraints they face. An over-systematic methodology for quantifying additional costs would be disproportionate and would not take account of the individual characteristics of each of the ORs. The ever-increasing importance attributed to the assessment of Community policies must not result in the creation of superfluous statistical tools.
I regret the initial lack of interest – even if it was only initial – shown by DG Trade when negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). I must urge the Commission, when it comes to reaching final agreements with the ACP countries, to continue seeking compromises that respect the interests of the ORs concerned and I must urge it too, in the interests of the wider neighbourhood, to give genuine substance to the Wider Neighbourhood Action Plan.
With regard to transport, my report expresses concern about the inclusion of civil aviation in the European CO
Emission Trading Scheme system. It is important not to jeopardise the efforts made to overcome the ORs’ accessibility deficit.
Community actions must be a catalyst for a spirit of enterprise to develop centres of excellence, driven by sectors – such as waste management, renewable energies, energy self-sufficiency and biodiversity – that fully exploit the advantages and know-how of the ORs.
I welcome public consultation on the future of the EU’s strategy for the ORs, but I believe that although the themes selected – climate change, demographic change and migration management, agriculture and maritime policy – certainly cannot be ignored, they do not cover all the major concerns of our regions. I regret, for example, that the scope of Article 299(2) of the EC Treaty, which is the cornerstone of the Union's policy for assisting the ORs, has not been included on the agenda so as to give the debates the legal, institutional and political substance they merit.
The importance of public services for economic, social and territorial cohesion in the outermost regions, the question of state aid, the maintenance of differentiated tax regimes, the persistence of unemployment and inequalities, ways of overcoming the narrowness of local markets, integration into the European research environment, effective participation by the ORs in European policies to promote innovation and overcome the digital divide, and funding arrangements for cooperation projects with neighbouring countries are all, in my view, subjects that need to be addressed now.
In conclusion I would re-emphasise the aims of my report, namely to ensure the conditions for the economic development of the ORs and thus guarantee genuine prosperity for their populations, to strengthen their competitiveness and to convince these remote regions that the future of Europe also includes them."@en1
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