The EU has long acknowledged the specific features common to the Azores, the Canary Islands, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Madeira, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and Saint Martin, and has afforded them a special status. But the Juncker Commission has for the first time introduced specially tailored support, with the Member States, to help these regions build on their unique assets, create opportunities for their inhabitants and hold their own in a globalised world.
In its proposals for the future programmes of the european budget for 2021-2027, the Commission fulfilled the commitments set out in the new EU Strategy for the outermost regions of October 2017, which is itself a tangible response to requests expressed by the regions in the memorandum submitted to President Juncker in Brussels in March 2017.