Artur Lima defends Region with "dignity and voice" in European Union's next long-term budget - Communication

Vice-Presidência do Governo Regional

On Friday, the Vice-President of the Regional Government chaired the closing session of the Conference "Cohesion Policy - Current and Future Challenges," which took place at the Capitães-Generais Palace in Angra do Heroísmo.

The Azores "are and want to continue to be agents with dignity and a voice in the process of European construction," stated Artur Lima on the European Commission's proposal for the next Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034.

The Vice-President of the Government warned of a "centralisation that should worry us and we should look at with scepticism." In this regard, he recalled that the final statement of the 26th Conference of Presidents of the Outermost Regions, chaired by the Azores in November 2021, "deplored the lack of consultation between the States and the Regions in the design of national recovery plans."

On the subject of the European Union's plan for the defence sector, and recalling the discussion on a reduction in the Cohesion budget, Artur Lima defended that "Regions that bring geostrategic advantages to the European Union, such as the Azores," should benefit "clearly and practically from this new European direction."

The Azores and the European regions are calling for a European Union that is "more agile, swifter and less complicated with instruments capable of adapting quickly to the needs of the present and the future," stressed the Vice-President of the Government.

"However, what is now on the table is different: Cohesion as we know it and the principles on which it is based are at stake,‘’ he pointed out.

According to Artur Lima, "Cohesion funds are of utmost importance for the Azores."

As an outermost region, he continued, the Azores are "an extreme example of all the regional heterogeneity existing in the European Union."

Therefore, it is essential to "defend a fair Cohesion Policy" that ensures social cohesion, territorial cohesion, sustainability, competitiveness and prosperity throughout the archipelago.

"Cohesion is also at the intra-regional level, among all our nine islands," he concluded.

Organised by MEP Paulo do Nascimento Cabral, the initiative brought together the Regional Government, political parties represented in the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, the Economic and Social Council of the Azores, social partners, municipalities and parishes to promote the debate in the Region on the future of the European Union's Cohesion Policy.