SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Nov. 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, travels to Brussels this Monday to participate, from early Tuesday and until Thursday 17, in the XXVII Conference of Presidents of the Outermost Regions (RUP) of the European Union (EU).
The head of the regional Executive has an intense agenda of meetings with community organizations and the Canary Islands will also officially assume the presidency of the Conference of Presidents of the ORs from this November. This mandate will coincide in the second half of 2023 with the Spanish presidency of the EU.
Torres, in addition to the scheduled sessions with his counterparts from the other eight ORs, will meet with high-level representatives from all European institutions, such as the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola; the Commissioner for Cohesion, Reforms and Regional Policy, Elisa Ferreira; the Permanent Representative Ambassador (Reper) of Spain to the European Union, Marcos Alonso, and the General Secretary for the European Union of the Government of Spain, María Dolores Lledó.
The Canarian president will begin the day on Tuesday with an internal session of the presidents of the ORs from 09:30 am (Brussels time). At around 12:45 p.m., the signing of the Final Declaration of this XXVII Conference is scheduled and a press conference will be held detailing the agreements adopted, while, in the afternoon, starting at 2:30 p.m., Torres will meet with the president of Martinique, Serge Letchimy, the French region that gives the baton of the presidency to the Canary Islands.
The agenda will continue with a meeting from 4:00 p.m. with the president of the European Parliament’s Regional Policy Committee (REGI), Younous Omarjee, with a delegation from the Socialist Group in the European Parliament and with the Commissioner for Cohesion.
The ORs face this important meeting with the objective, among others, of renewing the political commitment of the community institutions with the outermost region, of obtaining the support of all the European partners for the deployment of article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU to guarantee the development of the RUP statute and to promote the application of the recently renewed strategy of the European Commission for these regions within the Twenty-seven.
In addition, Torres will insist on the need to carefully, solidarity and effectively address the migratory challenge of the ORs, as well as other key challenges, such as the energy, digital and sustainable transition.
During the scheduled meetings, efforts will also be made to reinforce the EU’s support for the interests of the ORs in the files now in the legislative process, which are already in the phase of tripartite coordination between Parliament, the Council and the European Commission.
Among these issues, the exceptions in the Objective 55 (Fit for 55) package on the reduction of CO2 emissions in air and maritime transport stand out, apart from those related to energy taxation and the Social Fund for Climate.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE EUROPEAN TOURISM AGENCY
The ORs also set themselves the goal of starting the commitment to defend the unique treatment of the ultra-periphery in the face of a possible reform of the European treaties. In addition, and with special interest on the part of the Canary Islands, they want to promote the new European tourism policy in order to include the creation of a European Tourism Agency, for which the Canary archipelago is applying and has already achieved significant support, such as that of the Government of Spain or the main business associations of the islands, among other public and private institutions.
Torres plans to strengthen the coordination of the Canarian presidency of the ORs with the Spanish presidency of the EU (in the second half of 2023). Among other priorities, it is intended to include areas of interest of both presidencies, such as sustainability, green transformation, digitization or the promotion of the capacities of the country and the Canarian community.
The president of the Canary Islands sets himself the goal of the islands assuming a leading role as interlocutor of the ORs in Europe. It will also seek a commitment to include in the program of the Spanish presidency of the EU special attention to the ultraperiphery, which includes the promotion of events to be held in the archipelago, such as the ministerial conference at the highest level in November 2023 in Tenerife , where the participation of the presidents of Spain, France and Portugal, the only countries with OR regions within the EU, is expected.
