The Vice-President of the Government stated in Horta that the Azores are an example of the importance of the European Union's Cohesion Policy and its future maintenance, highlighting the unique convergence process achieved in the last 15 years.
"The Azores were the only region in the country that has converged to the EU average in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and wealth generation in the Europe of 28 (countries)," stressed Sérgio Ávila. He spoke at the Legislative Assembly during a debate promoted by the Azorean Government on the "The European Union after 2020."
"The Cohesion Policy is undoubtedly one of the major achievements of the European Union," the Vice-president said, adding that, "if it is time to look ahead to the future in terms of cohesion policies, it is also time to reaffirm our path towards cohesion."
Sérgio Ávila pointed out that, between 2000 and 2015, the Region converged 1.6 percentage points to European Union average, while some countries diverged by 6.6 percentage points. The remaining regions of the country also diverged from the European average.
"If we look at the 15 founding countries of the European Union, which also have a higher level of development, the Azores have converged in this period to the European Union average by 6.4 percentage points. In turn, the national average diverged by 0.4 percentage points," said the government official.
"These facts demonstrate that our reality and our efforts to claim and defend the Cohesion Policy have made the Azores a clear example of convergence towards the EU average levels of income and wealth," added the government official.
"This is particularly relevant when, over the same period, we have managed to achieve the convergence process with the resources allocated under the cohesion policy," stated Sérgio Ávila.
Hence, the government official defended "the path of global convergence must be awarded priority status within European policy, namely the Cohesion Policy, an ever more balanced and increasingly fair European construction tool."