The Regional Director for European Affairs stated that projects such as Hexagone "strengthen the cooperation relations" of the Azores with the partners they have established historical relations and emotional ties for many centuries, such as the case of Madeira, the Canaries and Cape Verde. Moreover, they are also important to "start new partnerships," namely with Senegal and Mauritania.
 
Célia Azevedo spoke Friday at the Hexagone coordination meeting, stressing the importance of European programmes such as INTERREG, the funding entity of this project. According to her, they "not only stimulate intra-regional relations in the area of regional administration, but also extend them to universities, research centres, organisations and entities."
 
The meeting was held with the aim of assessing the implementation of this project, whose first coordination meeting took place in the Azores in April 2017, and planning the activities to be developed. Moreover, it also intended to carry out a preliminary analysis on a study that is under way for the identification of possible common areas of agreement between ERDF - European Regional Development Fund, which benefits European regions involved in this project, and EDF- European Development Fund, which benefits non-European territories.
 
Promoted under Hexagone, this study identifies the projects submitted under the first call to the MAC (Madeira, Azores, and Canary Islands) territorial cooperation programme. These projects, being in line with the sectors financed by the European Union in Cape Verde, Senegal and in Mauritania, may become a starting point for working together with the EU delegations in these countries and with other actors involved in the process.
 
This meeting held in Funchal also discussed the preparation of guidelines to support the development of projects with third countries (not belonging to the European Union).
 
The partners of the project - the governments of the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands - also had the opportunity to meet with various entities working on cooperation issues in Madeira, namely the University of Madeira, Regional Civil Protection Service and the Institute of Health Administration and Social Affairs.
 
Hexagone is a strategic project approved under the MAC 2014-2020 territorial cooperation programme with an estimated budget of nearly one million Euros, co-funded by ERDF at 85%. It aims, on the one hand, to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the European Union by increasing cooperation between European regions and non-European countries encompassed by this project and, on the other hand, to develop skills for the conciliation between ERDF and EDF.