SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, September 19 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The vice president of the Parliament of Bremen, in Germany, and rapporteur of the Opinion of the European Committee of the Regions (CDR) on the new pact on migration and asylum of the European Union, Antje Grotheer, spoke this Tuesday by videoconference at the ‘Conecta Conferences. Canary Islands-Europe’ organized by the Canary Islands Parliament and called for “more solidarity and an equitable distribution of burdens to relieve pressure on front-line regions”, such as the Canary Islands.
In his opinion, “the primary objective must be that local and regional realities are taken into account in the reform of the EU’s migration and integration policy, given that the socioeconomic impact of migrations and the daily effort of reception and integration of migrants is strongly felt at the local and regional level.
Thus, he explained that “several of the recommendations of the European Committee of the Regions were included in reports from the European Parliament and should be reflected in the final EU legislation.”
In his opinion, “the definition of a migratory crisis must also be understood from a local and regional perspective and the Canary Islands are proof of why this is important, if you look at the situation at the national level you do not obtain a sufficiently precise image of the seriousness of the regional situation”.
In this sense, he explained that “local or regional governments are the best placed to offer a coherent vision of the situation and their needs, which is why they should participate more in the definition of migration policies in Europe.”
For Antje Grotheer, “greater support is necessary for local and regional governments, both political and financial, from the national and European level, in order to facilitate their work of welcoming and integrating immigrants in a socially responsible and based on international law and European values”.
TOMORROW THE PRESENTATIONS ON COHESION FUNDS START
The conference will continue this Wednesday with sessions dedicated to cohesion policy in the EU.
In the first session, the second vice president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Gustavo Matos, will intervene, and through videoconference, Pedro de Faria e Castro, member of the Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget Committee of the European Committee of the Regions and speaker of the Opinion on the Outermost Regions (ORP) of the aforementioned committee, and the MEP of the Group of the European People’s Party Gabriel Mato.
Subsequently, María del Pilar Almeida Trujillo, deputy director of European Fund Management of the General Directorate of Planning and Budget of the Government of the Canary Islands, will speak, who will speak on the operational programs and their level of execution in the Canary Islands.
The evolution of GDP per capita will be the title of the talk by José Miguel González Hernández, economist and consulting director at Corporación 5.
Carlos Portugués Carrillo, an expert in European affairs, will also intervene to address the differentiated application of cohesion policy in the Canary Islands as an outermost region.
Wednesday will close with a panel discussion on the future of the Canary Islands in the new period of cohesion in which Matilde Asián, Minister of Finance and Relations with the European Union, will participate; José Luis Rivero Ceballos, professor of Applied Economics at the University of La Laguna, and José Carlos Francisco, president of the Economic and Social Council of the Canary Islands.
