Largest gathering of island leaders

PALMA
MAJORCA is this week hosting the largest ever gathering of European regional leaders the island has ever witnessed as Palma and Calvia host the 28th General Assembly of the Islands Commission.

Chief ministers, director generals and leading politicians and policy advisors from the Isle of Man, the Orkney islands, the Shetlands, the Western Isles, Greece, Finland, Italy, Malta, Madeira, the Azores, Gotland in Sweden and the Canary Islands began arriving in Majorca last night for the two-day summit which starts this morning in Illetas.

This is the third occasion on which the Balearics has hosted the general assembly.
The first being in Ibiza in 1986 and the second in Palma just five years ago.
The regional leaders will be joined by members of the European Parliament and Commission as well as captains of industry from many of the participating regions and countries.

Senegal is even sending a team of observers. The principal aim of the Islands Commission, which was created in 1980 and today represents over 25 regional authorities, is to urge European institutions and member states to pay special attention to the island regions, to acknowledge their permanent handicaps resulting from their insularity , and to implement policies that are best suited to their situation.

The general assemblies and regular departmental meetings serve to foster closer inter-regional cooperation between the island states and regions - especially on issues in direct relation with their insularity.

In total, 25 regions are taking part in the general assembly which is going to debate, among many other issues, “how can the islands reconcile sustainable development with territorial cohesion?” Other themes and workshops include the promotion of sustainable tourism, the integration of air transport in the EU Emission Trading Scheme and its impact on islands and how islands regions can fight climate change.

The Islands Commission actually comes under the umbrella of The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions which was set up in 1973 and today brings together more than 150 regions from 28 different countries and represents more than 190 million people. The CPMR believes that there is a “two-speed Europe” with much of the wealth concentrated in the centre of Europe and not enough being distributed to the “periphery” which the organisation was created to represent and fight on behalf of.

For the past 30 years, the CPMR, has been working hard to help develop periphery regions, generate closer cooperation between member regions and attract greater aid from European institutions and this is what the general assembly in Majorca will be looking to push forward over the next few days.