EDP call for outermost regions to become ultra-central in Europe’s future
The European Democratic Party and Coalición Canaria met in Tenerife to discuss the future of the European Union’s outermost regions in the next Multiannual Financial Framework, at a decisive moment for the definition of Europe’s future budgetary priorities. The event, held at the Espacio Mutua Tinerfeña in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, brought together political and institutional representatives to address funding, territorial cohesion and the need to preserve specific instruments adapted to the realities of the outermost regions.
The institutional opening was led by Sandro Gozi, Member of the European Parliament and Secretary General of the European Democratic Party, and Fernando Clavijo Batlle, President of the Canary Islands, Vice-President of the EDP and Secretary General of Coalición Canaria. The event included a round table on “The outermost regions in the current European scenario” and was closed by Oihane Agirregoitia, Basque MEP, member of EAJ-PNV and of the Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament.
For the European Democrats, the message from Tenerife was clear: outermost regions must not be treated as administrative exceptions or distant territories to be compensated. They are fully European territories and strategic platforms for Europe’s global projection.
Sandro Gozi stressed the strong cooperation between the EDP, the Government of the Canary Islands and Coalición Canaria. Calling for a change in the way Europe looks at these territories, he said: “We need to change the vocabulary. We always speak about outermost regions, but in today’s world these regions are ultra-central for a Europe that wants to play a global role. The Canary Islands are strategic for Europe’s relations with Africa and Latin America, and they play a very important role in the Atlantic.” He also warned that the necessary simplification of EU funds must not become centralisation: “Simplification must not mean centralisation. We must help the outermost regions to be more autonomous, with European programmes and funds used and managed directly for their specific needs.”
Fernando Clavijo Batlle, President of the Canary Islands, Vice-President of the EDP and Secretary General of Coalición Canaria, recalled that the Canary Islands are part of Europe “through their difference” and warned that the proposed reform of the next EU budget represents a profound change in the governance of European funds. By integrating different policies into National and Regional Plans, the proposal risks strengthening the role of Member States while diluting the specific instruments designed for the outermost regions. For territories such as the Canary Islands, remoteness, insularity and additional costs are not temporary difficulties, but structural conditions requiring a clear and specific European response.
David Toledo, Secretary of Organisation of Coalición Canaria, warned that the future EU budget must not weaken the instruments that protect the Canary Islands. “The Multiannual Financial Framework raises fundamental issues for the Canary Islands, starting with the attempt to centralise POSEI funds. If these resources were managed from Madrid and distributed at its discretion, it would put at risk funds that are essential for the primary sector in the Canary Islands — a sector that safeguards our identity, our landscape and the Canary Islands we know today,” he said. Toledo also pointed to migration and housing as two urgent challenges for the islands, stressing the need for European solutions that take into account the specific reality of the outermost regions.
Oihane Agirregoitia, MEP from EAJ-PNV and member of Renew Europe, also warned against weakening specific European instruments for the outermost regions. Referring to the next EU budget, she stressed that “we do not like the initial proposal, because it centralises many policies into national packages and because POSEI, a fundamental fund for the outermost regions and, more specifically, for the Canarian people, disappears from it.” She added: “From now on, we will fight to ensure that this does not happen, and that greater budgetary flexibility or competitiveness does not come at the expense of funds that guarantee cohesion, survival and economic stability for regions such as the Canary Islands.”
The debate highlighted the importance of protecting specific instruments for the outermost regions in the next EU budget. Administrative simplification must not dilute the tools that have allowed Europe to respond to their particular geographical, economic and social realities.
For the European Democratic Party, defending the outermost regions is not only a matter of cohesion policy. It is also about Europe’s strategic interest. Regions such as the Canary Islands are European territories in the Atlantic, connected to Africa and Latin America, and key laboratories for connectivity, sustainable development, energy transition, migration, climate resilience and Europe’s global role.
The Tenerife meeting confirmed a common political objective: to give more voice, more recognition and more political strength to the outermost regions in the European debate. As the EU begins to define the priorities of its next budget, this is not merely a budgetary discussion. It is a question of political recognition, territorial cohesion and Europe’s ability to respond to specific realities with concrete and effective tools.
