Regarding the participation of the Azores in the first Forum for Outermost Europe, which was held in Brussels on 27 and May 28, Regional Secretary of the Presidency, André Bradford, was invited to write an article in the June issue of one of the most important regional information magazines in the European Union - the Parliament’s Magazine Regional Review.

In the aforementioned article, the Secretary of the Presidency Regional highlights the areas where the Azores and other outermost regions bring assets for the European project, such as oceanography, renewable energy, quality agricultural products and the preservation of biodiversity, and urges the European Commission to develop programmes and measures to enhance such areas.

For André  Bradford, “solidarity is at the core of EU integration and is a distinctive factor in many of its policies. The challenge we are faced with now is of preserving the solidarity of cross-cutting cohesion, agriculture and transport policies to help address the specific challenges of the outermost regions; and new measures that can help boost growth in dynamic sector with proven success.”

The Regional Secretary of the Presidency defended that “Brussels must support growth, but also not obstruct, even unintentionally, what is being stimulated in the outermost regions.”

The Parliament’s Magazine Regional Review is read by an average of nearly 10,000 people, including officials and policymakers of the European Union, Member States and regional representatives in Europe.