Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on 'The future of peripheral areas in the European Union'
Date: 1998-07-16
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: Structural Funds, development plan, peripheral region, regional aid, regional and local authorities, regional cooperation

13.10.98

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 315/15

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on ‘The future of peripheral areas in the European
Union’

(98/C 315/04)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

having regard to its bureau’s decision on 11 June 1997, in accordance with the fourth paragraph
of Article 198c of the Treaty establishing the European Community, to issue an opinion on
‘The future of peripheral areas in a new Europe’ and to entrust its preparation to Commission 2
for Spatial Planning, Agriculture, Hunting, Fisheries, Forestry, Marine Environment and
Upland Areas;

having regard to its opinions on rural development policy (CdR 389/96 fin) (1), on a policy for
upland agriculture (CdR 178/97 fin) (2) and on new activities and new services in rural areas
(CdR 3/97 fin) (3);

having regard to the opinion (CdR 23/98 rev.) adopted by Commission 2 on 11 June 1998
(rapporteurs: Mr Murray and Mrs Haijanen);

whereas most rural communities are currently struggling to identify their changing place
within a new Europe, the problems of peripherality, which affect all rural communities, are
magnified in the more remote areas of the European Union,

adopted the following opinion at its 24th plenary session on 15 and 16 July 1998 (meeting of
16 July).

1.

Introduction

1.1.
This opinion refers to areas of the European
Union which we define here as peripheral, and which
include uplands areas, the offshore islands and archipel-
agos and the more remote mainland areas (which could
be further defined on the basis of their distance from
centralized markets and transportation networks, as
defined in the ‘European spatial development perspec-
tive’) of the Member States. Peripheral areas are disad-
vantaged in terms of their geographical location and
are generally characterized by declining and ageing
populations as well as other problems associated with
rurality but which are more acutely manifest in these
areas. These characteristics can be largely attributed to
the lack of economic and social opportunity and if this
is allowed to continue it will have serious consequences
for the future economic and social life of these communi-
ties.

1.2.
Despite a number of obvious similarities, the
distinctive features of the most remote regions has
led to their specific situation being dealt with under
Article 299(2) of the Amsterdam Treaty, which is not
the subject of this opinion. The COR reserves the right
to deliver an opinion at a later date on this matter.

1.3. Most peripheral areas have been particularly
affected by the trend in declining employment in the
agricultural and forestry sectors, a situation that has not
been balanced by alternative employment opportunities

(1) OJ C 116, 14.5.1997, p. 46.
(2) OJ C 379, 15.12.1997, p. 53.
(3) OJ C 215, 16.7.1997, p. 16.

in other sectors. This has resulted in a drift from
these areas of the economically active generation, and
particularly women. The steady decline in population
reduces the demand for goods and services of local
enterprise, which further undermines economic activity
in both the public and private sector. This cycle of
decline weakens the economic and social base of
peripheral communities and could, ultimately, lead to
their desertion. Current EU developments in Agen-
da 2000, CAP Reform and Enlargement will further
curtail the development of these areas unless the situation
is addressed.

Peripheral areas do however possess an intrinsic
1.4.
value that not only supplements the values that have
been lost in the more urbanized, industrial areas but
also compensates for these lost values. As a consequence
of their remote location many peripheral areas have
preserved a way of life and an environment which has
been largely lost to the more cosmopolitan areas. The
diversity of language, culture and heritage which exists
in peripheral areas portrays an alternative lifestyle
and living experience. Combined with a clean, rural
environment these factors offer development oppor-
tunities that are unique to these areas.

If genuine economic and social cohesion is to be
1.5.
achieved in the EU then an integrated policy for
peripheral areas should be implemented and compensa-
tory measures drawn up to enable them to offset the
natural handicap from which they suffer. To enable
peripheral areas to harness their development oppor-
tunities that the EU affords to other areas and strengthen

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their independence in relation to the latter, forms of
development generated essentially at local level need to
be created, not least by means of the compensation and
the integrated policy the EU affords to other areas.

diversity, and their high environmental standard. It is
these specific features, which are the biggest tourist
attractions that are in danger of being severely damaged
by mass tourism.

2. Development Issues in Peripheral Areas

2.3. Culture

2.1. Transport

2.1.1.
The additional cost resulting from peripherality
makes itself felt very obviously as regards transport,
which in terms of time and money, undermines the
competitiveness of peripheral areas and deprives them
of economic development opportunities. In relation to
the offshore islands this involves the additional expense
of VAT charged on the transport of goods to and from
the islands and undermines competitiveness on mainland
markets. Climatic factors cause additional costs in
northern peripheral areas and upland areas. These
include costs related to maintenance of roads (snow
clearance, gritting, salting, etc.) in winter and, particu-
larly in archipelago regions, keeping waterways open.

2.1.2.
Regarding future development of peripheral
areas, it is important to maintain or boost transport
systems. Priority must be given to promoting low-energy,
environmentally-friendly transport systems. Terminals
and communication arteries should not be ends in
themselves designed for tourism, but should link periph-
eral areas to the single European market and offer
the most efficient technologies, storage facilities, and
combinations so as to compare favourably with main-
land terminals. Within peripheral areas the electrifi-
cation of rail routes and the development of internal
and external air communication should be encouraged.

2.2. Tourism

2.3.1.
As a result of their remote locations many
peripheral areas have managed to preserve a strong
cultural identity. This gives these areas a certain unique-
ness and as one of the indigenous strengths of these
areas it is crucial that this is preserved and utilized in a
sustainable manner. A sustainable cultural
identity
enhances a region’s confidence and can be a means to
contribute to economic development.

2.4. Fisheries

2.4.1.
Fisheries have traditionally played a vital role
in many peripheral economies and are still a major
source of domestic development and employment for
many of the EU’s peripheral areas. However, in compari-
son with coastal ports, island ports suffer from serious
natural disadvantages as a result of their distance from
the principle mainland markets and the greater difficulty
in obtaining access to new technologies and sources of
funding.

2.4.2.
The fisheries are in difficulty, not least because
the overcapacity of the Community fleet is severely
reducing available stocks. Moreover the equipment used
by fishermen in peripheral areas is out-dated and
consequently fishing vessels cannot be easily used to
diversify into other activities. Perhaps the greatest
problem facing the fishing industry in peripheral areas
is management of fishing grounds and fish stocks.
Aqua-culture and the shell fish industry have consider-
able development potential in peripheral areas, however,
care must be taken that this development does not
damage the environment.

2.2.1.
Tourism in peripheral areas is largely seasonal
in nature, resulting in a concentration of visitors at peak
times of year and effective shutdown thereafter. Future
development should be based on clear-cut planning
aimed at diversification (traditional tourism, cultural
tourism, green tourism, farm tourism, archaeological
tourism, youth tourism, sports tourism, fishing, edu-
cational tourism, etc.) and securing the involvement of
many local people throughout the year. With diversifi-
cation tourism would continue for longer, increasing
the benefits and reducing the demands on peripheral
areas.

2.2.2. Whenever addressing itself to tourism the EU
must make sure that expansion closely matches the
capacity of existing facilities and services in peripheral
areas. These areas have to preserve and develop their
distinctive characteristics, their cultural and linguistic

2.5. Agriculture

In addition to poor fertility of the land, the
2.5.1.
shortness of crop seasons, limited local demand, and the
paucity of basic facilities, farmers, especially in the
smaller island regions, who work on a small scale, incur
relatively expensive overheads. This includes the high
transport costs of importing the necessary goods as well
as the expenditure incurred in selling their products on
the principal markets. Since this expenditure reduces
income, farmers cannot finance the investment required
to improve production and young people are discouraged
from setting up in farming, leading to the obvious results
in terms of depopulation.

Climatic and altitude-related conditions can also
adversely affect the agricultural sector. For example, the
thermal growing season in northern areas is more than

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two months shorter than in central Europe, which makes
farming in the north especially difficult. This should be
taken into account when deciding on the future of the
common agricultural policy.

2.6. Telecommunications

2.6.1.
The costs arising from the handicap of being a
peripheral area could be greatly reduced by means of a
substantial Community programme to develop telecom-
munications infrastructure. Telematics in particular is
one of the few existing means that could be directly
employed to involve peripheral areas at first hand, via
in the Community economy and global
networks,
market. In addition to information and tourism, fields
in which they are already being used, telematics appli-
cations could lend themselves to various other sectors,
for example education and health.

2.6.2.
A programme run by the Community or a
series of coordinated pilot projects would help to develop
the concept of telematic education, which has already
proved successful in Highlands and Islands University
(UHI). ‘Telemedicine’ could be another spin-off since
persons living in peripheral areas that do not have
specialized outpatient clinics could contact doctors
in other areas and obtain ‘telediagnoses’. In short,
incorporating peripheral areas into the information
society will be one of the biggest challenges of the next
few years and could have enormous benefits.

As the Committee of the Regions has pointed out in an
earlier opinion, it is important from the point of view
of implementing the European Information Society that
all regions are afforded real opportunities to use basic
telematic services. This is particularly relevant to periph-
eral areas as regional disparities are developing quickly
due to the rapid progress in this field. This situation
needs to be addressed at the earliest possible opportunity.

2.6.3.
In addition to infrastructure, there is a also a
need in peripheral areas for various actions to boost
demand for information society services, e.g. measures
raising public awareness of the opportunities offered by
electronic commerce and teleworking. It is equally
important to ensure that, in future, an increasingly large
proportion of this demand can be met locally.

2.7.

Infrastructure and the environment

2.7.1.
A seasonal difference in the through-flow of
people to and from peripheral areas puts considerable
strain on local infrastructure and environment. Water
resources, waste management facilities, harbour facili-
ties, roadways and paths can all suffer considerable

strain. As seasonal infrastructural and environmental
pressures increase, destructive pressure on the social
fabric and social structure of the permanent residents
also increases. Any planning decision concerning periph-
eral areas, any environmental management policies, any
estimates of viability and sustainability must have regard
to special demographic characteristics that pertain in
these areas.

2.7.2.
The development of good infrastructure and
sustainable environmental management is a critical
factor in sustaining peripheral communities and catering
for the maintenance and growth of tourism and other
forms of local enterprise. However, due to geographical
limitations and low population levels, projects in many
peripheral areas find it difficult to qualify for cohesion
and regional funding as they are often below the EU
threshold levels.

2.8. Healthcare

2.8.1. While, for financial reasons it would not be
practical to have a permanent health service in areas of
low population, it is important that there is reasonable
access to external
facilities. An important aim of
Community policy must be to achieve a level of
healthcare that enables all inhabitants of peripheral
areas to lead full and productive lives. Primary care,
such as adequate sanitation facilities and clean drinking
water are fundamental to the implementation of such a
policy.

In this context, it should also be recognized
2.8.2.
that the age profile of peripheral areas, which generally
contain a high proportion of elderly people and school
children, has implications for health service providers.

2.9. Unit Costs of Services

A feature of peripheral areas is the high unit
2.9.1.
costs of virtually all forms of public service, for example,
in education; healthcare; transport; the arts and leisure
services. This feature of peripheral areas must be fully
recognized in the distribution of state and EU resources
if all citizens are to enjoy access to broadly comparable
levels of public services.

2.10. Environment and nature conservation

2.10.1.
There is a strong correlation between the
features of peripheral areas and sites designated as of
special environmental importance under Natura 2000
and other forms of national or EU nature conservation
designations. Such designations indicate the high level of
landscape and environmental importance of peripheral
areas for biodiversity and can be important assets as a
means of promoting tourism. However, such desig-

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nations can also make some forms of economic develop-
ment more difficult to achieve in order not to compro-
mise environmental quality.

2.10.2.
The possible impediment to local economic
development from nature conservation designations
or the need for higher expenditure to achieve such
development in ways which do not harm the environment
should be recognized as should the need for additional
agri-environment measures to assist the creation of local
jobs in the proper maintenance and management of
high-quality nature conservation sites.

3.

Impact of common policies

3.1. While there are many EU policies that aim to
develop the socio-economic well-being of peripheral
areas, many of these are implemented on a purely
sectoral basis and can have undesirable knock-on effects.
In addition, there are also common policies, which can
also have a negative impact on the future development
of these areas.

3.2.
Some of the EU’s peripheral regions, for example
Corsica, the smaller Greek islands or the Aland islands,
have a tax status constituting an exception to community
law. This situation, which constitutes a crucial factor
for their economic development, would change if wide-
spread tax harmonization failed to allow for the need
for exceptions to enable these and other peripheral areas
to deal with the economic and social handicaps with
which such areas have to contend.

If the specific arrangements for peripheral areas
3.3.
were abandoned, including the exemption from VAT
for transport to and from certain Mediterranean islands,
or VAT rates below the corresponding maximum rates
levied on other regions, very harmful effects would
ensue. Exemption from VAT on transport should be
extended to other peripheral areas, e.g. Objective 1
areas, on the margins of the EU. Value added or the
profits of business would fall, the cost of living would
rise, tourism would suffer as a result of these higher
costs and local production would be destabilized.

Specifically,

if Corsica, the Balearic Islands,
3.4.
Shetland, the Orkneys, the Western Isles, or the Danish
islands were to be deprived of the present exemption
from VAT on outward and incoming transport, costs
would increase by between 4 % and 9 %.

The operation of the CAP has been challenged several
times in the mainland regions of the EU. As far as
peripheral areas are concerned, the repercussions of a
Community policy not geared to the precarious stability
of their specific situation have done greater damage still.

3.5.
The principle of some variations to national tax
regimes to protect the interests of peripheral areas and
help offset the high costs of fuel and transport should
not be seen as running against the principle of a strong
and fair EU.

4. Compensatory measures

In formulating future policy for peripheral areas
4.1.
it is important that there is provision for various
compensatory measures to offset the adverse reper-
cussions of the present common policies and a range
of tax and financial
incentives to enable domestic
economies to thrive. European common policies from
the CAP to the concept of tax harmonization go hand
in hand with the internal market, which although
beneficial, is not geared in practice to peripheral areas.
As far as these areas are concerned the concept of an
internal market and freedom of movement are founded
on an evident geographical impossibility. To restore
equal competition a way must be found to eliminate the
drawbacks of common policies.

4.2.
If peripheral areas were permitted to enjoy
apparently favourable tax treatment such as that applied
to Corsica, the only consequence is that they would have
the opportunity to make up their obvious competitive
backwardness thus ensuring that all peripheral areas
would eventually be in a sound position to operate on
the internal market which the Union is seeking to
establish.

4.3. Member States, moreover, have to follow a dual
approach. On the one hand they must defend the
derogations previously granted to their peripheral areas
and, on the other, they must refrain from using tax
harmonization as a convenient pretext for abolishing
such privileges. Derogation’s should be proposed by
each Member State individually, since it is impossible,
except when dealing with isolated matters such as
VAT on transport, to ascertain common problems
and common solutions applicable to national taxation
systems.

5. Role of local and regional authorities

5.1.
Although there are great similarities between
the causes and consequences of problems affecting
peripheral areas throughout Europe, it would be wrong
to assume that the same package of measures can provide
a ‘blanket’ solution to all their problems. To ensure the
optimum effectiveness of proposed measures there must
be scope for far-reaching regional diversification within
the framework of national and EU policy. A strong
regional input in the formulation of regional policy is
therefore indispensable and the engagement of local

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communities, as successfully demonstrated by the Leader
Programme, must also be closely involved as part of the
bottom-up approach.

5.2.
Locally generated development is a vital factor
not alone in finding the right solutions to current
problems but also to ensuring their longterm sustain-
ability. It is therefore recommended that this is one of
the principle avenues that the Commission should
explore in developing future policy for peripheral areas.

A policy along these lines could be supported, both by
individual national governments and the Commission,
which could assign a quota of Structural Funds assistance
to be used to boost small and medium sized enterprises
and cottage industries that could bring economic devel-
opment and employment to peripheral regions. ‘Business
Development Centres’ should be set up to provide
necessary information and administrative backup to
revitalize activity.

The Commission,
in agreement with the individual
Ministries for Tourism of the Member States concerned,
could do much to assist in this connection by organizing
an advertising campaign to promote peripheral areas and
their produce (which might include tourism, agriculture
and fishery products, arts and crafts, etc.) which,
although varying from place to place, are to be found in
all EU peripheral areas. The advertising campaign would
aim to promote a seal of quality testifying to the original
local identity and increase European awareness of typical
products,
including those from the smallest island
regions.

In accordance with the final declaration of the Cork
Conference a policy for all rural areas must take account
of differing regional circumstances and respect the
subsidiarity principle. Such a policy must, as far as
possible, be decentralized and be based on the principle
of partnership and cooperation between all the different
levels concerned. In this context the EU should confine
itself to setting out framework provisions and should
give the regions sufficient scope to frame their own
measures.

6.

Inter-regional cooperation

6.1.
Inter-regional cooperation should be encouraged
by the European institutions to further enable the Unions
peripheral regions to overcome their isolation. By
pooling experience and information European regional
authorities could give pride of place to their successes
and obtain suggestions and alternative solutions to what
are often similar problems.

It would also be desirable to set-up a European inter
regional service network to deal with and highlight

common problems such as shortages of resources and
waste disposal and, via the Internet, to publicize tourism,
culture and crafts, acting as a telematic chamber of
commerce foreign trade institute for every peripheral
area connected to the network. Expansion of this
sector could generate considerable knock-on effects on
employment.

In addition to seeking to create conditions in peripheral
areas which are comparable to those in other parts of
the EU, special attention needs to be paid to the
development of border areas with non-member countries
so that disparities in standards of living do not widen
any further, leading to increased tension in border areas.
Among other things, this implies that the development
of border areas in non-member countries should be
incorporated as an integral part of border programmes
and the development of border areas. In practice, this
means establishing close links with between the Interreg,
Tacis and Phare programmes so that development
initiatives can be extended to border regions in non-
member countries. At the same time however, it must
be ensured that internal cross-border cooperation within
the EU under the Interreg programme can continue
without interruption.

7. Structural Fund reform and Community initiatives

7.1.
According to the new financial outlook charted
in Agenda 2000 the Structural Funds are to be reviewed
again and strong emphasis will be laid on simplification,
revision of certain fundamental principles such as
concentration, and the Community initiatives. The
recipients of assistance under the ERDF are to be reduced
sharply.

The current Agenda 2000 proposals may result
7.2.
in a number of current peripheral Objective 1 regions
losing that status. The Agenda 2000 proposals are
currently under discussion and the special needs of
peripheral areas as outlined in this opinion need to be
carefully considered before the conclusion of debate on
Agenda 2000 to ensure that criteria for Objective 1 areas
fully reflect the special circumstances of peripheral areas
in terms of population sparsity and all the other features
highlighted in this opinion.

7.3.
Unfortunately, the areas eligible for Structural
Funding are mapped out in such a way as to discriminate
in some instances against peripheral areas which have
been encompassed for statistical purposes within terri-
torial divisions where the situation is entirely different.
For example, in the case of the archipelagos, where there
is a unique land/sea relationship, only land area is
considered in calculating population density.

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7.4.
The reform being proposed in Agenda 2000
would seem to run counter to the draft Amsterdam
Treaty which, by rewording Article 130a of the EC
Treaty, officially recognized the specific nature of
peripheral island regions, their natural handicap, and
hence the need to find ways of enabling these disadvan-
taged regions to close the development gap separating
them from the rest of Union.

7.5.
The same approach should be followed when
reworking the Community Initiatives. The continuation
of support for communities and community develop-
ment through the capacity building, training and support
services provided by Leader II and other initiatives are
critical to encouraging locally generated development.

8. Key recommendation

With regard to the future of peripheral areas in the
European Union the Committee of the Regions wish to
put forward the following key recommendations:

The Committee of the Regions recommends the
8.1.
drawing-up of an integrated policy for the future
development of peripheral areas within the purview of
Structural Founds objectives. This policy should take
account of the unique circumstances common to all of
these areas, whilst also recognizing their diversity, and
should aim to ensure that they share in the development
opportunities of European integration.

Especially in the run-up to enlargement of the European
Union, it is important to avoid the adoption of an
unduly restrictive definition of peripheral areas and to
take account now of those regions which will in future
be even more remote from the nerve centre of the
European Union, which will inevitably shift.

8.2.
The Committee is of the opinion that, in line with
Article 129b(2) of the Treaty, the current shortcomings in
the links between the peripheral and central regions of
the Community should be significantly reduced by giving
the matter appropriate
consideration when im-
plementing the Community concept of the framework
for action by the new Structural Fund. Aid systems
should therefore be established to enable peripheral
areas to be served by combined transport. Such a policy
should also cover local transport and hence encourage
small-scale private enterprise.

8.3.
The Committee of the Regions also believes that
industries located in peripheral areas should be allowed
to benefit from special transport tariffs for raw material
imports and the export of finished products and that
special pricing arrangements should be laid down for
the transport of diesel oil and other forms of energy.

areas, which, unless it alters or diversifies its structure,
might be in danger of imploding, destroying economic
spin-offs in the process.

Codes of conduct and good practice guides should be
drawn up for the tourism industry and quality seals
awarded to industries meeting the particular environ-
mental and cultural requirements of individual areas.

Tourists should be encouraged to refrain from upsetting
fragile ecosystems and made to pay forms of locally
appropriate taxation which can help protect the local
community and its environment. This revenue from
tourism should be invested in environmental or cultural
projects.

The Committee of the Regions also recommends that
steps are taken to encourage the emergence of local tour
operators and to ensure that the main source of income
for peripheral areas is not subject to outside control.

An integrated Community policy must promote
8.5.
a series of measures and projects that will not only
preserve the cultural features of peripheral areas, but
will also aim to strengthen their economic potential.
The Committee of the Regions believes that promotion
of historical and archaeological sites, restoration of
traditional settlements, qualitative enhancement of areas
of outstanding natural beauty, educational programmes
and programmes to promote international cultural
cooperation should be facilitated and that this must be
done in a manner that cultivates the unique character of
each area.

8.6. With regard to fisheries policy a more sympa-
thetic attitude to stock conservation should be fostered.
The Committee of the Regions believes that the inte-
grated development of local fishing industries should
also be pursued. It is important to follow developments
in the fishing sector closely, and, where necessary,
impose catch restrictions, in order to maintain stocks at
healthy levels.

In addition, representatives of these areas should be
consulted whenever the EU adopts new legislation on
fisheries. The Committee of the Regions considers that
fisheries policy should make constant fundamental
distinctions to meet the needs of fisherman in a more
appropriate and realistic way. Given the location of the
principal markets the EU should provide support and
encouragement to enable outlying fish processing and
distribution chains to be set up.

The Committee of the Regions believes in the
8.4.
need to chart alternative courses for tourism in peripheral

8.7. With regard to agriculture the Committee of the
Regions recommends that a range of measures be drawn
the CAP.
up to reduce the harmful

impact of

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Transposition of these measures may be effected by
means of appropriate regional programmes and support
frameworks as part of the future EAGGF regulation on
support for the development of rural areas.

Special environmental programmes need to be developed
for all peripheral areas in order to ensure proper
management of environmental resources and facilitate
sustainable economic and social development.

Farming techniques should be disseminated more widely
and effectively to improve products and the competi-
tiveness thereof. Financial resources should accordingly
be allocated to training institutes, research, and the
services through which such information is channelled
to farmers.

Special assistance should be given to training and
education programmes to promote and develop organic
methods of farming. The Committee of the Regions also
accepts the need to reduce or contain the numbers of
livestock in areas which are environmentally sensitive.
However, environmental measures must be balanced
with direct assistance to ensure farmers continue to have
a viable income.

The Committee of the Regions also believes that the
criteria for granting agricultural aid (CAP) should be
amended to focus less on output, and more on the need
to provide farmers with a fair standard of living, and
on the impact farming has on the environment, the
countryside and conservation of resources.

The Community should implement an awareness raising
policy to protect woodlands from fire and to fund
preventive measures (open areas, fire breaks, appropriate
forestry techniques, etc.) and local intervention bodies.
Sectoral planning is also needed, including the provision
of ways and means of repairing the damage inflicted by
indiscriminate felling and by fires over the last decade.

8.8.
An integrated Community policy should provide
funds for, firstly, desalination of seawater and construc-
tion of underground storage facilities and, secondly,
research into rainwater storage plans. The Community
should accordingly encourage water resource manage-
ment, which should be linked to European ‘use optimiza-
tion’ criteria, providing automatic disincentives to waste,
and inter island exchanges of know-how in the field of
water recycling.

8.9.
The Committee of the Regions proposes that
peripheral areas should be connected to the national
energy network with the support of the EU. Where
appropriate, for example on some of the remote islands,
Community energy policy should seek to enhance
domestic energy potential, and the EU should conse-
quently draw up comprehensive programmes to exploit
sources that have hitherto been untapped. Solar energy,
wind power, geothermal energy and biomass all provide
opportunities for European islands to provide their own
energy supply.

8.10.
An integrated policy for peripheral areas should
aim to improve marketing, primarily by emphasizing
the quality and origin of products and also by improving
and developing the standing of local production, thereby
bringing the market closer to island products.

An integrated approach should be adopted to deal with
storage, preservation, transport and distribution of
foodstuffs, and the facilities, from irrigation to com-
munication, designed to compensate for the remoteness
of peripheral areas.

8.11.
The Committee of the Regions believes that in
relation to healthcare, an integrated Community policy
must aim to establish a network of regional health
centres that provide primary healthcare in conjunction
with a network of high standard hospitals providing
secondary care and a full range of medical speciality
services.

Tax harmonization measures, which are a
8.12.
desirable goal for the rest of the Union, should not, in
the opinion of the Committee of the Regions, be
extended to peripheral areas and should not be enforced
except to prevent proven cases of genuine distortion of
the market and unfair competition, as under Article 99
of the Treaty.

The Committee calls on the Commission to
8.13.
ensure that the forthcoming reform of the Structural
Funds secures adequate support prospects for peripheral
areas.

9. Conclusions

Local populations, and especially visitors, must be made
aware of the need to prevent, reduce, recover, and
recycle waste. Even some of the less populous areas
could constitute a worthwhile market for the recycling
industry. Peripheral areas could become testing grounds
in which to study and implement new recycling systems
and introduce new waste reclamation, recovery, storage,
disposal, and transport technologies.

A European policy recognizing the vulnerability
9.1.
of peripheral areas and seeking to promote their locally
generated development presupposes a considerable
widening of the ‘de minimis’ rule for granting regional
state aid and state aid in general to small and medium-
sized enterprises. An extended framework such as this
for aid which does not require notification and which

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EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

13.10.98

has to be compatible with the common market under
Article 92(3)c of the Treaty, should be incorporated into
forward by the Commission on
the proposal put
18 February 1998 for a Council Regulation (EC) laying
down rules for the application of Article 93 of the EC
Treaty. The Committee of the Regions feels that such a
move recognizes the special status of peripheral areas
and the specific problems of small and medium-sized
enterprises, and is a appropriate way to offset the
disadvantages caused to them by their natural surround-
ings and economic structure.

9.2.
In light of the declaration concerning Article 130a
on cohesion policy, annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam,
implementation of a globally coordinated action which
could be managed by an administratively independent,
interdisciplinary team,
is recommended. This team
would draw on expertise from various policy areas
and would coordinate EU policies and programmes
impacting on peripheral areas. Possible functions of the
team would be to oversee and help to devise European
financial resources having direct implications or uses
for peripheral areas, assess the effects of the Structural
Funds, make certain that Community legislation made
provision for the specific features of peripheral areas
and where necessary, employ emergency measures when
peripheral areas were faced with wholly exceptional
economic or natural crises.

Brussels, 16 July 1998.

This team should also pursue a common policy, applying
to all peripheral regions, in the areas of energy and
water supply, transport, the environment, tourism,
social services, agriculture and fisheries, and telecom-
munications, laying emphasis in every instance on the
value of local development potential. In addition a study
should be conducted on the impact of common policies
on peripheral areas in order to allow specific compensa-
tory measures to be identified. It is highly recommended
that a green paper is prepared on this subject.

9.3.
Another role of an interdisciplinary team should
be to undertake a study of what tax and financial
incentives might be granted to help peripheral areas.
Financial incentives exist practically everywhere in the
Member States and in most cases are administered by
the Commission. An integrated policy for peripheral
areas should stress not only the type of incentives, but
also the geographical locations at which they are aimed.
However, as regards tax incentives and exemptions the
approach should aim to promote peripheral areas by
means of a more flexible policy on State aid and measures
to stimulate locally generated development.

9.4.
A special forum in Brussels, perhaps the CPMR
(Council of Peripheral and Maritime Regions in Europe)
could allow those representing European peripheral
areas in the Community institutions to periodically take
stock of progress in bringing European legislation in
line with the particular circumstances of these areas.

The Chairman

of the Committee of the Regions

Manfred DAMMEYER