The fourth Forum of the Outermost Regions was held last 30-31 March in Brussels.
This forum is held every two years and is meant to serve as a platform for dialogue between the EU’s outermost regions (Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, French Guiana, Martinique, Guadaloupe, St Martin, Mayotte and Réunion), the member states, the European Commission (EC) and other European Union institutions. The aim is to determine an EU strategy that responds to those regions’ concerns.
In short, it is policy forum where the EC is informed of those regions’ interests and pledges to provide responses, either technical assistance or recourse to European funds and, if necessary, support from the European Investment Bank.
This fourth Forum aimed to consider the importance of integrating the outermost regions in Europe and in neighbouring markets as a key element for their socioeconomic development.
To compensate the costs of insularity and geographic distance from Europe properly speaking, various sectors were identified which require resources to ensure their development, specifically:
- transportation (sea and air);
- agriculture (exports of products produced in the regions);
- fisheries (artisanal fishing);
- energy (access);
- health (telemedicine);
- communications.
Regarding the communications sector, and bearing in mind that the outermost regions are an integral part of the EU, matters concerning the following were of special concern (at the plenary sessions and in the third panel):
- roaming, portability, e-gov, e-learning, e-commerce;
- connectivity (need to establish or develop regional networks, and those that interconnect regions and interconnect outermost regions to Europe);
- access to broadband services (WIFI4U, 5G and goal of 100 percent coverage of the outermost regions’ population);
- assumption that projects are projects of strategic European interest;
- creation of digital highways (underwater cables), specifically the Brazil-Portugal underwater cable providing access to the outermost regions of Madeira, the Canary Islands, French Guiana and in all likelihood the Caribbean; also mentioned was the need for diversity in those regions’ interconnections with Europe;
- use of satellite in regional networks as a privileged access to remote areas.
