The Council of the Government has approved a proposal for a Regional Legislative Decree defining the legal scheme for licensing space activities, prior qualification, registration and transfer of space objects in the Azores, announced the Regional Assistant Secretary of the Presidency for Parliamentary Affairs.
 
"With this Regional Legislative Decree, the Region will be able to decide on matters concerning space activities based on infrastructures or platforms located in its land or maritime territories," stressed Berto Messias at the presentation of the press release from the Council of the Government under the Government's statutory visit to São Jorge.
 
Hence, the Region will exercise the right to define in its own legislation, as stipulated in the recently approved national legislation in this matter.
 
Also, in the aerospace area, the Regional Government will sign a contract-programme with RAEGE Azores Association - Atlantic Network of Geodynamic and Space Stations up to the maximum amount of 375 thousand Euros. It is intended to support the costs of the RAEGE Fundamental Geodetic Station, installed on Santa Maria, with human resources, infrastructure improvement, among others.
 
Regarding the support for agriculture, the Regional Government has decided to "increase the POSEI support for farmers, amounting to nearly 3.8 million Euros," through "funds from the regional budget," stressed Berto Messias.
 
In the area of land transport, Berto Messias announced the launch of a public tender for the second phase of the consolidation works of the slopes of the Regional Road no. 2-2 in the Furnas/Ribeira Quente section on the island of São Miguel, "an estimated investment of about 3.6 million Euros."
 
"In addition to the intervention on several sections of the regional road, the intervention includes the construction of a semi-tunnel structure, about 200 metres long, to improve the safety road traffic conditions in Ribeira Quente, thus reinforcing safety conditions in the access to that village," said the government official.
 
In turn, the Participatory Budget of the Region for 2019 will "increase to one million Euros, when the budget for the 2018 edition was at 600 thousand Euros," said Berto Messias.
 
This year, the Participatory Budget of the Azores will be extended to Culture, an area that will join the four initial areas: Environment, Social Inclusion, Youth and Tourism.
 
According to Berto Messias, the Azoreans will be able "present proposals for their island as well as public investment ideas at regional level" in the 2019 edition. This decision follows on the "suggestions submitted by the citizens who participated in the first edition."
 
In tourism, the Azorean Government has decided to allocate 4.2 million Euros for the "development of contract-programmes to be signed with non-profit associations" with a view to "promoting the Azores destination or their different tourism products in national and international markets."
 
Safeguarding the operation of Furnas and Batalha golf courses on São Miguel Island, widening the scope of the energy production incentive system - PROENERGIA, defining the organisation and supervision model for projects funded by the LIFE Programme, and supporting social, economic, cultural, sports and religious projects were other decisions taken by the Regional Government.