The European Strategy for the Outermost Regions

The European Commission adopted a Communication on 3 May 2022, ‘ Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s outermost regions’, which reflects the Commission’s commitment towards the outermost regions in line with Article 349 of the Treaty.

The Communication presents the priorities for EU action with and for the outermost regions to foster their development, as well as recommendations for action by the outermost regions and their Member States - France, Portugal and Spain. Following the strong impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the outermost regions, the Commission sets forth action needed to foster a sustainable recovery and growth in these regions. The Communication focuses on:

• Putting people first - improving living conditions for people in the outermost regions, ensuring people’s quality of live, addressing poverty, developing youth opportunities;
• Building on each regions’ unique assets such as biodiversity, blue economy or research potential and by addressing their constraints;
• Supporting a sustainable, environmentally friendly and climate-neutral economic transformation grounded on a green and digital transition;
• Strengthening outermost regions’ regional cooperation with neighbouring countries and territories.

The staff-working document ‘Outermost Regions at a glance – assets, challenges and opportunities’ complements the Communication and provides a snapshot for each outermost region.

The synopsis report ‘Results of the Communication on the outermost regions consultation activities’, provides a summary of the consultations carried out to prepare the Communication.

The European Commission has set out strategic orientations in favour of the outermost regions in five Communications (2004, 2008, 2012, 2017 and 2022).

On 21 June 2022, the Council adopted Conclusions on the Commission Communication “Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s outermost regions”. It is the first set of dedicated Council Conclusions on the outermost regions.

The Council Conclusions welcome the Communication and reflect its main themes and priorities. They call on the concerned Member States to take action to support their outermost regions e.g. in developing administrative capacity, in participating in research consortia, in building basic infrastructure to address citizens’ basic