Carlos César considers “a meeting to which we attach great importance,” the one with José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, to take place in Brussels on Wednesday.
The President of the Government of the Azores explains that, from the Azores’ point of view, it is important “because we integrate a delegation made up of eight representatives of a body which is composed by 161 regions, representing nearly 200 million European citizens, which grants the Azores a leadership position in the dialogue with the European Commission with regard to the definition of the 2020 strategy for Europe.”
“Secondly,” added Carlos César, “it is also very important for us, as well as for all European regions, because drawing the attention of the European Commission and, particularly, of its President, for the primacy of regional policy in the context of territorial cohesion policies is the main goal of this meeting.  If we have a strong regional policy, if we elect cohesion as a fundamental value of the future strategy of the European Union, this means that it is important to continue to allocate and increase the Community funds for the development of the regions with permanent constraints or limitation with regarding the average of European development.”
For the President of the Azorean Government, “this is the major goal of this meeting: influence the post-2013 strategy, the 2020 strategy in the evolution of regional policy and of cohesion policy, drawing the attention to some specific policies in the areas of agriculture, fisheries, maritime policy, accessibility policy and energy policy.”
Questioned by journalists on the possible impact of economic and financial crisis, at a European and global level, in these conversations, Carlos César believes that “it is just a phase in which the regions take joint responsibility and present themselves as the weakest links in the European territorial chain regarding the effects of the crisis. It is also important to draw the attention of the European Commission for the investment and the positive discrimination that must be achieved at this level.”
“With the economic and financial crisis,” the President of the Government of the Azores concluded that “the territorial cohesion in the European Union is even more difficult and, therefore, the regional policy is fundamental in this context as well as the EU funding for the regions that need it.”