The European Commission today presented two new strategies to respond to the challenges facing coastal communities and islands in the European Union (EU), namely climate change, excluding the outermost regions, such as the Azores and Madeira.
Concerning coastal regions, where, according to the Commission’s accounts, 95 million people (21% of the bloc’s total) live along the 70,000 kilometres of the EU’s coasts and in coastal areas of 22 member states, including Portugal, the initiative is intended to promote “a dynamic, competitive and diversified blue economy,” with the development of businesses such as fishing tourism and offshore renewable energy.
Furthermore, the Commission wants to increase climate change adaptability and wider environmental, economic, social, and security challenges, as well as to improve habitability, while safeguarding maritime culture, heritage, and local identity.
The European Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, Costa Kadis, stressed at a press conference that “coastal regions are on the front line of climate change.”
As for the islands, the proposal is addressed, according to data from Brussels, to 17 million inhabitants on more than four thousand islands in 16 member states, including the island states Cyprus, Ireland, and Malta, but excludes the outermost regions such as the Azores and Madeira, for which a specific plan will be presented at the end of the year.
The EU executive proposes economic development, namely through better connections, sustainable tourism, energy security, environmental protection, and resilience to climate change, and the strengthening of public services, health care, housing, education, and social inclusion, to reverse depopulation and retain young people, and also increase security and preparedness for crises.
The European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Rafaelle Fitto, said that the proposal for the next EU multiannual financial framework (2028-2032) “recognises the need to respond to the special needs of islands.”
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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