Happy Europe Day from the outermost regions

New EU strategic agenda; Waste management in tourist cities; European innovation with an American focus at the University of French Guiana

Alicia R. Mederos wrote and edited today's Brief Rup

This May 9 will not be another European Day. The elections of the next 26-M have an existentialist aspect that distinguishes them from the votes before the European Parliament, usually routine, followed between yawns in public conversation.

On Thursday in Sibiu, Romania, EU leaders will meet to discuss the strategic agenda from 2019 to 2024. The Commission has proposed five priorities: security and migration, innovation and competitiveness, social justice, sustainability, the EU's influence in the world. It is significant that regional cohesion is not among these foci, but rather as a marginal reference to "regional disparities".

The agenda shows the still fresh scars of the poly-crisis, or perfect storm, which has shaken the foundations of the European project since 2008.

From the rapid contagion of the virus of the junk mortgages in the United States, to the debt crisis of Greece; from the arrival of refugees fleeing the war in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, to the wave of terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels, London, Manchester or Barcelona, from the Brexit to the resurgence of populism, the convulsions of Europe in the last decade they are reflected in the vision that the leaders have of the EU for the next five years. It is no longer the ambitious vision of the European project that followed the fall of the Wall and the reunification of Germany. She has become cautious, she has lost a certain innocence.

In taking stock of the last five years (2014-2019), the Commission highlights some eloquent indicators: unemployment in the EU has been reduced, from 10.6% to 6.4%; among young people, unemployment has dropped from 21.7% to 14%; economic growth has been constant in the last six years, salaries have increased by 5.7% in the EU and 3.9% in the euro area, the Erasmus program has already moved ten million students and teachers since 1987 , and greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 22% since 1990.

The same can not be said of the outermost regions of Article 349 of the Treaty of Functioning. They continue to be at the forefront of unemployment, especially in youth unemployment. In some, the unemployment rate has even increased between 2014 and 2019. They remain oil-dependent regions by up to 99%. Their conditions of remoteness and isolation continue to produce the same disadvantages, while public policies hardly manage to enhance the advantages of their situation as innovation ecosystems in strategic fields such as clean energy, biotechnology, the blue economy or tourism.

In Europa Rup we have published Far from convergence, a specific assessment of how the outermost regions have fared in the last twenty years. During this period, the ORs have reduced their distance of income with the EU by only one percentage point; and in the case of the Canary Islands, the distance has increased. In the conversation of this archipelago, some qualified voices, like that of the economist Juan Arencibia Rocha, begin to wonder if it would not have been better for the Canary Islands to stay outside the Customs Union, with the freedom to trade with the world, as they always did.

Every May 9, the commemoration of Robert Schuman's speech in 1950, proposing the creation of a single Authority for the production of steel and coal from Germany and France, gives rise to the well-known repertoire of commonplaces of a self-satisfied Europeanism.

"Europe - its society, its economy - has emerged stronger from the test of these times, even though more work is needed to ensure that the benefits of the EU are perceived by all Europeans," says the Center for European Policy Strategy - Commission think tank - in a document entitled "Common Goods. Strengthening Member States' capacity to act in the 21st Century", published last week.

The fact is that not all of Europe today is stronger or more prosperous than before the crisis; that not all Europeans perceive it as overcome. The European ORs need an ambitious cohesion policy that is one of the EU's priorities for the next decade.

IN SIGHT

EU-Africa. The Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, participates on Monday May 6 at the high-level meeting of the European Union-Africa.

Venezuela. The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy, Federica Mogherini, co-chairs a meeting of the Contact Group on Venezuela on Monday, May 6 in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Economic forecasts. On Tuesday, May 7, the Commission publishes its spring report with the economic forecasts for the bloc and for the euro zone.

EU-RUP ÁREA

Waste management in tourist cities. Eleven cities, including Ponta Delgada and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, will present on Tuesday, May 7 in Brussels, the results of a pilot experience of waste management in urban tourist environments. The Urban Waste project, financed with funds from the Horizon 2020 program, shares with the public the findings of its innovative approach to the tourism value chain and waste management.

Growth for Mauritius Island. The European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Neven Mimica, visited last week the island-republic, neighbor of La Réunion. The European Union will donate 7.9 million euros to support the strategy against unemployment and innovation.

A major prison in Guadeloupe. The Minister of Justice, Nicole Belloubet, visited the island on Wednesday, to check the state of overcrowding of the inmates of the prison of Fond Sarail, in Baie-Mahault. Minister Belloubet has announced an expansion project.

Record fuel price in French Guiana. The strong rise of this May 1 has angered consumers. Unleaded petrol has reached 1.7 euros per liter, its highest price since 2014. The Prefecture and the CTG union are asking for explanations from SARA, the Antillean refining company that has a monopoly on supply in Guyana. The company defends itself by explaining that the increase "is related to the geopolitical trail" of petroleum products.

A court paralyzes the coastal highway of La Réunion. The exploitation of a quarry to build the dike annexed to the new road would cause "serious damage to the environment, population and biodiversity," said the administrative court of Saint-Denis, giving the reason to the environmental groups and the City Council of Saint-Leu The highway will connect the west and north of the island, and is considered a critical infrastructure for the island, with a budget of 2,000 million euros. The sentence will delay its delivery, from 2022 to 2025.

CAMPUS RUP

European science with american focus. The University of French Guiana contributes to the Campus RUP alliance a scientific specialization in the Amazon and a strategic situation as the only European and French-speaking university in South America. Its head of International Relations, Rémy Dezelus, responds to the Europa Rup questionnaire about the consortium of ultraperipheral universities.

What will Campus RUP bring to the European Higher Education Area?

A voice and a unilateral force in front of the European Commission and the EU, with respect to the subject of Higher Education. The limits and barriers found by all the students of the ORs can be mutualised. To cite some examples, I would say that Campus RUP is a way to shorten barriers in areas such as distance, air connections, cost of living, opportunities to continue studies, difficulties in obtaining visas, and so on. Campus RUP, with its network of seven universities from the outermost regions of the European Union, is conformed with the desire to offer more visibility in the training maps and the scientific activities carried out respectively in each RUP and put under the focus shows differentiated quality in the context of Higher Education and European Research in the macro region.

Here you can read the rest of the interview.

Check here all the information about the Campus RUP project published in Europe Rup.

THE CONVERSATION

"Securing Europe's resilience even in the most adverse circumstances and restoring the block's ability to act in a world of rapid change can not simply consist in 'doing more of the same.' Rather, it is about developing shared political ambitions to navigate and shape the coming decades. The ability to respond to future earthquakes depends to a large extent on the ability to articulate relevant policies at the European decision level ".

European Political Strategy Centre, “Strenghtening Member States’ Capacity to Act in the 21st Century”, mayo de 2019. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Europe will not be done once or in a joint work: it will be done thanks to concrete achievements, which create a de facto solidarity in the first place".

Robert Schuman

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See you soon!