Communication from the Commission – The outermost regions of the European Union: towards a partnership for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth

The present Communication sets out how the Commission plans to work in partnership with the outermost regions (OR) for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The Council has stressed that the Europe 2020 Strategy with its three main priorities, namely, developing an economy based on knowledge and innovation, promoting a more resource efficient, greener and more competitive economy and fostering a high-employment economy, and delivering social and territorial cohesion, should be fully applied in the outermost regions taking into account their special characteristics and constraints.

The aim is to help the OR become more self-reliant, economically more robust and better able to create sustainable jobs, by capitalising on the unique assets they possess and their added value for the EU. As recognised in Article 349 of the TFEU, important constraints will always remain, such as remoteness from continental Europe. However a concerted effort to reform, modernise and diversify their economies - which have been heavily affected by the global economic and financial crisis - will be the best way to ensure a more prosperous future for the OR.

Each OR is different and distinctive ways forward need to be designed for each one. The renewed strategy set out here outlines opportunities for all outermost regions, but each region will need to design its own path to greater prosperity, according to its specific characteristics.

While some specific OR support instruments have shown their value, OR are sometimes best supported by adaptations of EU rules or by taking into account their specific needs at the moment of implementation. This strategy seeks to demonstrate how the OR can find their place in the many initiatives that are supporting delivery of Europe 2020, with much more comprehensive attention to the situation of the OR across the European policy spectrum than seen in the past.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)287: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:287:FIN

European Commission: SWD(2012)170: Commission staff working document http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=SWD:2012:0170:FIN:EN:PDF

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