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EURegionsWeek 2024

Solanas Bowl

Photograph: Solanas Bowl, © Stefano Marrocu


For the seventh consecutive year Sardinia Region, through its EU Liaison Office - in the role of lead partner of the Peripheral European islands’ Regional partnership - has been selected by the European Committee of the Regions and the European Commission as the organiser of the high-level political forum dedicated to the island status under the framework of the European Week of Regions and Cities, the European Union's main institutional communication event.

Due to their condition of territorial discontinuity and peripheral position from the mainland, island regions suffer from a wide range of structural and permanent disadvantages that deeply affect their development, representing a competitive disadvantage.
In this respect, EU policies are a key development factor for island territories. Although regulatory provisions concerning islands’ specific handicaps are laid down in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, there are no dedicated EU policy measures to address their distinctive challenges, neither at the legislative level nor at the political level - through a specific strategy - as underlined by the European Parliament in two different resolutions, adopted in 2016 and 2022.
In this context, the high-level political conference aims to address the issues of island regions in a dialogue with the European institutions to urge them to take insular dimension into account all along the EU policy-design process.

The event, entitled “The island regions and the upcoming EU legislative cycle”, took place on Wednesday 9 October 2024, 9h30 – 11h00 at the premises of the Committee of the Regions- Rue Belliard 99/101 (Room JDE 52), Brussels.

The panel discussion included high-level political representatives of Balearic Islands, Corsica, Crete, Gotland, Gozo, Ionian Islands, Åland and Sardinia, which belong to the regional partnership.

Following the regional partnership’s panel, the floor was given to the audience, including MEPs, members of the Committee of the Regions, members of the Economic and Social Committee, representatives of the European Commission, political and technical representatives of island local and regional authorities, representatives of civil society organisations, business community and academics.

AGENDA OF THE EVENT

INPUTS FROM THE ISLAND REGIONS
Moderator: Francesco Molica, Policy Analyst at the Joint Research Centre (JRC), EC
Alessandra TODDE, President of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, CoR Member (Italy)
Margalida PROHENS RIGO, President of the Balearic Islands Government, CoR Member (Spain)
Clint CAMILLERI, Minister for Gozo and Planning in the Government of Malta (Malta)
George ALEXAKIS, Vice-governor of Crete Region (Greece)
Marie-Antoinette MAUPERTUIS, President of the Corsican Assembly, CoR Member (France)
Filip REINHAG, Regional Commissioner of Region Gotland, CoR Member (Sweden)
Anders EKSTRÖM, Member of the Parliament of Åland, CoR Member (Finland)

REACTIONS FROM THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE EU
Younous OMARJEE, Vice-President of the European Parliament (France)
Manolis KOUTOULAKIS, Secretary General for Insular Policy and Aegean, Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs & Insular Policy (Greece)
Ioannis VARDAKASTANIS, Member of the European Economic and Social Committee, rapporteur of the opinion “Main challenges faced by EU islands, and mountainous and sparsely populated areas” (Greece)
Nicola DE MICHELIS, Deputy Director-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG Regio), European Commission (Italy)

CONCLUSIONS
Following the debate, the moderator invited the panel to draw the final messages on islands policy-related open issues in the EU

The political conference was characterised by high attendance with more than 200 participants, including members of the European Parliament, members of the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee, high-level representatives of the European Commission, political and technical representatives of island local, regional and national authorities, civil society representatives, and business community.

For more information concerning the conference, please visit the webpage dedicated to the event in the online platform of the European Week of Regions and Cities 2024:
Event's webpage

The complete recording of the event can be found at the following link:
Replay

Practical information
When: Wed 09/10/2024, 09:30 - 11:00 CET
Where: Jacques Delors building, JDE 52
Format: CoR Political WorkShop
Theme: Competitiveness and convergence: two sides of the same coin
Languages: English, Italian, French, Spanish


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