Regional Secretary for the Presidency defends in Brussels policies for the ORs that “ensure equal access to the benefits of the European Union”
The Regional Secretary of the Presidency, André Bradford, stated at the opening session of the 1st Forum for Outermost Europe on Thursday that “now the major challenge is the implementation of the announced ‘paradigm shift’ through policies through policies that can be effectively converted into actual factors of economic development, bearing in mind that the populations of the ORs should be granted equal access to the common advantages and benefits of the European Union.”
André Bradford, who leads the Azorean delegation in Brussels on behalf of the President of the Government, stressed that “our exceptionality is not restricted to a specific article in the Treaties. Our difference justifies a different treatment so that we may be equal to the remaining Europeans.”
According to that governmental official, the European Union should follow a strategy that “awards priority to the local advantages and to the potentialities of each region as a factor of sustainable growth, in addition to promoting new strategic sectors as well as compensation and justice measures, which may support the traditional economic sectors of the ORs.”
The 1st Forum of Outermost Europe brings together nearly 370 senior representatives from European institutions, Member States and Regions as well as from other organisations and institutions. During this two-day forum, the future strategies for the ORs will be discussed and the awareness for the specificities and potentialities of the outermost regions will be raised amongst “European decision-makers.”
At the opening session, which counted upon the participation of the EU Commissioners for Regional Policy and Internal Market and Services as well as of the representative of all ORs and their respective Member States, André Bradford defended that “regarding the future Regional Policy, in the revision of the EU budget and in the financial perspectives after 2013, it is urgent to create and implement a specific and coherent scheme with transverse nature that compensates the unique combination of structural constraints that hinders our development process and makes us more vulnerable than other regions.”
“In an economy with the characteristics of ours, talking about the total liberalisation of the single market and the reduction of support as we mention when we think of Paris, Berlin or Brussels is not only technically inadequate, but also politically wrong, André Bradford added, mentioning that the European Union “should correct its policies concerning the sea by reintroducing the protection area of the Sea of the Azores, acknowledging the benefits and allowing a decentralised and environmentally responsible proximity management of the fishing effort” as well as “reinforcing the promotion of competitiveness of the primary sector, particularly the possible deregulation of the dairy sector.”
The Forum for Outermost Europe takes place until Friday. The Azores are represented by a delegation that integrates representatives from the Chambers of Commerce of Angra do Heroísmo, Horta and Ponta Delgada, trade union and socio-professional associations of the University of the Azores, and representatives from the some departments of the Government of the Azores.