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Draft Resolution No. 534 /X/4.

Outermost Regions

"A trump card for Europe"

In the framework of the activity of monitoring, appreciation and pronunciation of the

European initiatives the European Affairs Committee developed, on the basis of the Act

paragraph 43/2006 of August 25, an extended scrutiny process of the initiative of the

European Commission on the Communication from the Commission-The outermost regions:

a trump card for Europe.

The European Commission, in the said communication, recognizes the importance

strategic and the great potentials of the Outermost Regions (RUP) in the context

of the Union. And, listening to the geographical and economic reality of the ORs, different to each other

and in relation to the other European regions, due to the remoteness, insularity, small

surface, relief and climate and economic dependence of external products these have, in the

European normative framework, a status of its own to be respected by the whole Union.

Considering that this reality is a factor of disadvantage to the

sustainable and harmonious development of the ORs, the Union proposed a strategy of

deepening of this problem that minimizes its disadvantages and promotes it

economic, social and territorial cohesion of these regions.

The Commission considers and recognizes the strategic importance and the large

potentials of the ORs for the future of Europe, defining specific areas to

value and support, particularly in high value-added sectors, such

how to: the agro-food, biodiversity, renewable energy, astrophysics, the

aerospace, oceanography, volcanology or still seismology and, also, in the

important role of the RUP as advanced posts of the European Union in the world.

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It advocates, too, a new paradigm for the ORs and in the face of challenges

world proposes a set of strategic actions from which to highlight: changes

climate, energy policy and environmental policy; demographic developments and flows

migratory; regional insertion; agriculture; maritime policy of the EU and Common Policy

of Fisheries; specific mechanisms for support to the ORs, in the context of the cohesion policy;

suitability of transport policy; financing of projects linked to the

Research, Technological Development, Innovation and Competitiveness; strong bet

in Information and Communication Technologies.

In this context, it considered the Committee on European Affairs (CAE) to deal with

of a matter of relevant national and regional interest for what he proposed, for purposes

of an in-depth and comprehensive analysis, the realization of a decentralized debate,

open and plural on the content of the said document and its implications for the

Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira.

CAE deliberated to collect input from various public entities and

private, in the Autonomous Regions and the Mainland. It was also requested to appear to the

remaining Permanent Parliamentary Committees of the Assembly of the Republic.

It was intended, in this way, to assess whether the specific measures and the tools

recommended for the benefit of the ORs are suitable for the development of the Regions

Autonomous of the Azores and Madeira, elapsed year and a half after the public consultation

carried out by the European Commission in September 2007.

Analyzed the contributions of the various consulate entities ascertained that,

despite the importance of the action of the Union for the sake of the development of the outermost

european, in the context of the internal and external changes that occur in the European plan and

Worldwide, with the predictable impacts on the ORs, is necessary, today, more than ever,

a pragmatic and differential strategy in favour of these regions that behold: the

sufficiency of means; the handling unit of the RUP assembly; the equality of

opportunities; the valorisation of potentials; coherence between policies; the reinforcement

of the institutional partnership.

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Different areas have also been identified in which the ongoing measures,

since 2007, for the development of the Autonomous Regions, have been considered

less suitable, namely, the subjects recommended for the following policies:

Transport; Information Society; Energy; Development Research

Technological and Common Commercial Policy.

This work of scrutiny, around this initiative of the European Commission, by the

quality and quantity of information collected from various entities and

public and private institutions, it constitutes a useful working tool for the

policy makers on the European issues and, more concretely, on the

matters concerning the ORs.

Of the elements in attendance, it can be concluded that, despite all the policies

aimed at alleviating the insularity costs and the problematic underlying the RUP and the

turn them into a "trump card for Europe", there is still a lot to be done for this to be a

reality.

Thus, in the face of the exposed, and under the constitutional and regimental provisions

applicable, the Assembly of the Republic recommends to the Government:

1. A particular attention to the information of the CAE's report and attachments on the

Communication from the Commission-"The outermost regions: an asset for Europe"

in the pursuit of the policies inherent in the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and the

Wood.

2. To support the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, inter alia, in the

first half of 2010, during which the theme of the RUP will be on the agenda

European, taking into account the high importance of these issues to Portugal.

Assembly of the Republic, July 7, 2009

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The Vice-President of the Commission

Luís Pais Antunes