The Canary Islands will host the celebration of the general assembly of the Islands Commission of the Conference of Outermost and Maritime Regions of the European Union. The annual summit of island and remote territories will be held in the first half of March next year in Lanzarote.
This has been confirmed by letter by the highest president of the Islands Commission Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions, José Manuel Bolieiro, to the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, accepting the invitation that the autonomous government sent him during the working sessions held last April in Punta Delgado.
As explained this Monday by the government spokesperson, for the Canary Islands "it is especially important" to host the body that brings together the most remote territories of the EU in 2025. Alfonso Cabello recalls that in the coming months negotiations will open to define the regulatory and financial framework of the European Union for the period 2028-2034, a "key moment that we must face together".
The representative of the autonomous Executive has also stressed that in March of next year, when the summit is scheduled to be held in Lanzarote, the members of the new European Council will already be elected and the European Parliament elected in the elections of June 9 will be fully operational. "The summit of the Islands Commission will have enormous relevance as it will be held at the beginning of the new political cycle of the EU," Cabello stressed, since "we will find ourselves in key months in the negotiation of the budgets and the legislative framework for the period 2028-2034".
The government spokesperson stresses that for the Canary Islands "it is important that the Canary Islands are well positioned" in order to face the maintenance and improvement of its special status in the EU as an outermost region. "The island and remote territories of Europe share similar realities and problems, so we understand that unity of action is essential to have a single and strong voice before Brussels," he said after recalling that "the Canary Islands has always led that unity of action and we have a firm commitment to continue doing so to defend our status in the EU and the need for us to receive differential treatment".
Precisely with the aim of preparing for this challenge, the president of the Canary Islands will travel to Brussels this week to hold a meeting with the secretary general of the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR), Eleni Marianou. In this meeting, Fernando Clavijo will review the priorities that the Canary Islands and the regions with which it shares a strategy have set for the coming months to defend their special status within the European Union.
