European Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans Costas Kadis said today that “there will be adequate support” for the sector in the outermost regions (PRUs) such as the Azores.
© Lusa
by
Lusa
And. statements to Lusa, in the fishing port of Rabo de Peixe, on the island of São Miguel, Costas Kadis, which makes a two-day visit to the Azores, highlighted this as a “commitment of the European Commission”.
The Commissioner with the protection of fisheries said that, after the summer break, “a strategy will be presented specifically for the outermost regions”, and “the measures that will be included will be reflected in the next Multiannual Financial Framework”.
“I want to assure all partners in the sector here that there will be support for the RUPs, which are in high regard to our priorities,” he stressed.
Costas Kadis intends with this trip to have ‘feedback’ to ‘improve policies so that we can better respond to the challenges these areas face’.
The Minister for Agriculture and the Sea, José Manuel Fernandes, who accompanies the European Commissioner, said that “the negotiation of the EMFF – the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund is under way”, with a proposal of EUR 4 billion on the table, but the Government “considers that it should be increased in the next Multiannual Financial Framework”.
José Manuel Fernandes argued that, in the context of cohesion policy, “a territory such as the RUPs, which are in the category below 75% of GDP per capita, must have access” to these funds, and there is “another point to comply with the Treaty which is Article 349”, which establishes the concept of ultraperiphery.
The minister considered it important to continue the support of the POSEI (Programme of Specific Options to address the Distance and Insularity) for the RUPs as the Azores “so that the disadvantages that exist in terms of accessibility, territorial discontinuity, are met”.
“It is no favor, I am against what is often called positive discrimination. It is about treating the territories as they have to be treated,” he said.
The minister reiterated that, together with the counterparts of Spain and France, countries with outermost regions, they have delivered a letter to the European Commission, as the Prime Minister has already done, “so that the POSEI may continue”.
The minister accompanies the European Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, Costas Kadis, on an official visit to the Azores until Monday, dedicated to sea policies, sustainable fisheries, conservation of marine biodiversity and development of the blue economy.