What place for islands in the European Union?

Abstract

My connection with Gozo started a few years ago, when in 1994, I visited Malta at the invitation of the University of Malta, and found some time to make a quick visit to Gozo. On that short visit I met the Hon Anton Tabone, who was then Minister for Gozo. It was then decided that Gozo should join the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR), which I represent here today. CPMR is an interregional organisation which brings together over 120 regional authorities of the maritime periphery of Europe. It is a democratic organisation, which is financed and governed by its members. The seat of CPMR is in French Brittany, the founding region. The "Islands Commission" of CPMR is the oldest of the organisation five geographical Commissions (the others being the Atlantic Arc, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Inter-Mediterranean Commissions). The Islands Commission represents 25 European Island Regions, stretching from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, from the Northern Atlantic to the Aegean Sea. It has its own President (presently Mr Baggioni, President of the Corsican Region), its own Political Bureau, General Assembly and Secretariat. Its remit is to deal with all issues of direct concern to the European Islands, to lobby for their interests with the European Institutions, and to foster inter-islands cooperation. The second time I visited Gozo was in 1996, when the CPMR Islands Commission was invited by the Ministry for Gozo to hold its annual conference at L-lmgarr Hotel, where we are meeting now. Twenty European island regions were represented at this meeting, with representatives from diverse parts of the World, including the Canary Islands, Corsica, Guadeloupe, Gotland and Madeira. It is worth pointing out that the Gozo conference was an important step for us all. On that occasion, a meeting of the Islands Commission's Political Bureau was held, attended also by the Hon. Anton Tabone and Mr Frank Psaila. The topic for discussion was the strategy that was to be followed by our organisation in the course of the negotiations leading to the Amsterdam intergovernmental conference, which was due to be held in 1998. We exchanged a few ideas and drafted a possible amendment to Article 158 (then 130 of the Maastricht Treaty) on social and economic cohesion, so as to highlight the conditions of islands within the European Community. We also drafted the text of a "Joint Declaration" where Member States would acknowledge the special problems of islands.