ISLANDS & TERRITORIAL COHESION Committee of the Region Kiruna, 14/12/09

« Territorial Cohesion »: What for ? A Community objective whose purpose is to allow the inhabitants of the different territories of the Union to benefit in an equitable way from the basic freedoms set out in the Treaty and implemented through the Community’s policies; bearing in mind the fact that, in practice, people’s capacity to travel, their access to goods, to services, to capital or to knowledge are influenced to a large extent by the geographic or demographic characteristics of these territories.

In Greece, the Aegean islands cover a surface area as large as that of Germany, but there the comparison stops. Their total population is 454,000 spread over some sixty islands, while, in Germany, 80 million citizens share a homogeneous territory.

A better assessment of island realities, with more adapted instruments

This map represents the virtual distances of the islands from the Centre of the EU, symbolised by Maastricht. We added the travel time of a semi-trailer by road, the crossing time by ferry, the waiting time and a frequency coefficient. This total travel time was converted into Km on the basis of the average speed of 60 Kmph for a truck on the Continent.

A better governance

Develop a cross-sectoral approach in EU policies Question the applicability of legislation at draft stage Setting-up of an Inter-Service group within the European Commission “Positive discrimination”

A solidarity which would respect the principle of proportionality

Insularity = extra cost of importig of bulky building material Mountainous terrain = building dfficulties + extra length Sparsely populated area= more road mileage to serve less people

Implementing a given policy in these territories will be likely to cost more than implementing the very same policy in an area which is unconcerned by such constraints. Small Island States (Malta, Cyprus) do not have the back-up of a “mainland”.

Territorial Cohesion: an important component of the ESDP?