FEET and TIDES professors at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Sergio Moreno Gil, and Patricia Picazo Peral, co-authored the research report “Cohesion Policy in the outermost regions” published by the European Parliament. The Regional Development Committee of the European Parliament requested this study.
The report analyzes the nine outermost regions (ORs) of the EU: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion, Martinique, Mayotte and Saint Martin (France), the Azores and Madeira (Portugal) and the Canary Islands (Spain). It focuses on the EU Cohesion Policy in the ORs, first describing these regions’ geographical, climatic, socio-economic, demographic, and administrative characteristics and analyzing the vulnerabilities that affect their convergence processes. It pays particular attention to implementing the EU Cohesion Policy and using local approaches to promote economic growth.
The report highlights the geostrategic role of the outermost regions and the opportunities they offer for the EU, territorial cohesion, and progress towards a more innovative, greener, more connected, and social Europe. It also addresses the complementarity of Cohesion Policies with other strategies.
The conclusions highlight the need to:
- Protect Article 349 of the TFEU as an essential regulatory provision that allows outermost regions to overcome (in part) their disadvantages while competing in the EU Single Market.
- Introduce flexibility and adaptation in the Cohesion Policy to increase the participation of local actors and the quality of their projects, as well as other EU policies to achieve cross-fertilization of projects financed by the EU.
- Support for the development of (sustainable) transport in the ORs.
- We decided on promoting the green transition (for example, with a specific instrument dedicated to the Green Deal in its key policies).
- It is supporting R&D and innovation in its key areas that catalyze transformation.
Policymakers at all levels of governance must devote considerable attention to R&D and innovation in future policies and strategies for the outermost regions.
The press echoed some results of the EP report:
Citation: “Maucorps, A, Fortuna, M, Ponce Dentinho, T, Jean-Pierre, P, Moreno Gil, S & Picazo Peral, P, 2024, Research for REGI Committee – Cohesion Policy in the outermost regions, European Parliament, Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies, Brussels”
