Artur Lima defends strong Cohesion Policy to reduce constraints in the Azores - Communication

Vice-Presidência do Governo Regional

The Vice-President of the Regional Government, Artur Lima, accompanied by the Regional Director for European Affairs and External Cooperation, Carlos Amaral, defended today in Patras that "we cannot envisage the European Union without a strong and ambitious Cohesion Policy." According to him, this policy should be geared towards the "full integration of the Outermost Regions into the European framework."

"We cannot envisage the European Union (EU) without a strong and ambitious Cohesion Policy, hopefully with a simpler and more flexible application, and with an increasingly in-depth territorial approach," he explained.

Artur Lima spoke at a session dedicated to the Future of Cohesion Policy post-2027, held as part of the Political Bureau of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPRM), which is taking place in Patras, Greece.

"Cohesion is at the heart of the European project thanks to its territorial approach, which reflects European diversity," he said.

He recalled: "It is necessary to emphasise that the situation of the Outermost Regions, such as the Azores, is not comparable - due to the combination of various constraints - to other territorial realities in Europe."

According to the government official, it is vital to ensure that "any new responses within the framework of the post-2027 European reforms should not be to the detriment of long-term investment programmes, such as the Cohesion Policy."

As such, Artur Lima considered that the "needs of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, in terms of basic infrastructures in essential areas such as transport, health, education or digital technology," should continue to be "prioritised within the scope of Cohesion Policy."

In this respect, the Vice-President of the Government mentioned the example of transport and accessibility in archipelago regions.

"The connectivity and sustainability of transport is a prime example of the difficulty of adapting policies designed for a contiguous and homogeneous territory to islands, archipelagos and territories far removed from the European continent," he said.

He added: "In the case of the Azores, for example, this is a blatant situation, where there are nine airports or aerodromes and more than a dozen ports ( not to mention fishing ports), in addition to nine road networks with specific configurations on the nine islands. Therefore, it will be necessary to mobilise resources permanently to ensure the continuity of these infrastructures and their maintenance, given their exposure to weather phenomena."