The Regional Secretary for Economy, Vasco Cordeiro, warned on Friday for the importance of the principle of subsidiarity as "fundamental" for the development of economic and social policies. The policies developed by island regions are based on environmental sustainability so that "they not be harmed by global decisions that do not take into account their specificities."

The Regional Secretary represents the Azores in a delegation of the Assembly of European Regions that met in Washington with U.S. political officials. These meetings are intended to analyse ways to enhance the relation of European regions with the United States in order to share experiences on environmental protection policies and the development of economic policies based on environmental sustainability.

According to Vasco Cordeiro, who spoke during a meeting with Reta Jo Lewis, Special Representative for Intergovernmental Affairs of USA State Department, the Autonomous Region of the Azores "has developed environmental sustainability policies in recent years. These policies are mainly based on a strong investment in renewable energies, such as geothermal energy, as well as on the achievement of some economic gains by reducing the dependence on fossil fuels."

However, the government official said the "the Azores, as a region, are not concerned with the effects of climate change just because of its impact on the environment. This is an ever-present concern in the environmental protection policies we adopt, but we have been trying to raise the awareness of our partners for the fact that some of the economic development policies need to take into account the reality of the economy of regions such as the Azores and other island territories."

For example, he mentioned, "some of the measures that are being analysed at a global level to combat global warming include the introduction of restrictions on air and maritime transport. These measures cannot be implemented without taking into account that the Azores and other regions are exclusively dependent on these two transports."

The delegation of the Assembly of European Regions which met in Washington is led by the President of the Assembly of European Regions, Michele Sabban, and it is composed by the representative of the Azorean Government, Vasco Cordeiro, the President of the Belgian Region of Wallonia, Rudy Demotte, the representative of the region of Corsica, Marie-Dominique Allegrini-Simonetti, the President of Istanbul, Oszan Bozatli, the Vice-President of the French region of Languedoc-Roussillon, Yves Pietrasanta, and Christophe Nuttall, the representative of R20 - Regions for Climate Action. This network is dedicated to the Green Economy and gathers different regions around the world, including the Azores.