“There should be a full and clear exemption from competition rules to EU islands and regions as they apply to state subsidy and support, stated Maltese MEP Alfred Sant.

Dr Sant was addressing the Conference Which Place-Based Approach to EU Investments? A case study on Islands and Outermost Regions at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

He added that “there is no way by which such exemption can affect in any way, the operations of the European single market.”

” To be sure, regularly, scrutiny could be organised to ensure that these arrangements are not being abused in any way. Less that 4% of the European population lives in islands and the EU’s southernmost regions,” Dr Sant said.

The Maltese MEP remarked that islands and peripheral regions “must consistently and strongly advance the case for grants to constitute a major part of the array of regional development instruments applying to them.”

“The policy of shifting available funds towards a levered financial profile, on the grounds that this would mobilise greater volumes of money will be counterproductive for those at the periphery of Europe,” Dr Sant added that, “it will lead to the provision of less, much less investment funds. Given the circumstances that island and peripheral regions face, grants must indeed continue as a centre piece to compensate for the disadvantages that they need to overcome, especially in the context of an economic and monetary union.”

He continued by saying that “we need to insist that with all means at its disposal the EU helps to promote digitalisation in all sectors which are relevant to reduce the peripherality of islands and regions. Such support will need to show itself at the level of how competition policy is addressed when dealing with digitalisation projects.”

Alfred Sant commented that “the fundamental effort to be carried out needs to be political. We need to convince all interested decision makers in the EU that islands and peripheral regions have got to be given a fair deal – one that is consonant with their circumstances, unless we are quite prepared to let them become deserted backways.”

He also pointed out that the need to inject productive capital in such regions is widely acknowledged, in order to improve their living standards and bring them closer to those of the centre. Economic and social convergence between all zones within the Union is a vital target that all agree with.

“There is a clear probability that the investment reinforcement will happen with a greater roll in areas which have good economic endowments, a large population and proximity to markets,” he remarked.

Dr Sant stated that “all this, islands and peripheral regions lack. So, the likelihood has increased that in real terms, they are and will be slipping down, in the implementation list of new investment projects. Reading through the schedule of investments that EFSI has been launching seems to confirm this fear.”

“It is only through political action, intended to stimulate political responses that this trend can be reversed,” said Dr Sant. “The case must be made through and through, by all representatives of islands and peripheral regions, whether of right centre and left, that the regions they stand for merit special treatment.”

Alfred Sant concluded his statement by saying that, “we need a further attempt by which to downscale the way that competition policy gets applied to island and peripheral regions. There should be a stop to one size fits all policies in these regions, even if they get shrouded in methods that seek to adapt bureaucratic procedures as they apply on a continental basis to peripheral and insular situations.”

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