EN
27.12.2022
Official Journal of the European Union
C 493/55 Tuesday 7 June 2022
38.
Calls for urgent measures to limit the depopulation of islands as well as brain and skill drain and to improve quality of life, including by improving accessibility for vulnerable groups, to support local businesses and protect jobs, and to address population ageing; calls also for the development of education, professional training, upskilling, innovative and sustainable entrepreneurship and employment establishments for island inhabitants to be promoted, particularly for women, who face a higher unemployment rate than men in almost all EU islands, and young people;
39.
Stresses the need to expand the Council’s agreement of 7 December 2021 to update EU rules on rates of VAT for all insular areas in the EU where applicable;
40.
Points out that the COVID-19 crisis has exposed the health fault lines in many European islands; stresses, therefore, the importance of developing and improving health infrastructure, access to care and providing support to encourage the establishment of healthcare professionals, particularly in the most remote island territories;
41.
Stresses the need to encourage, at the local level, close cooperation, mobility and exchanges of knowledge between education, research and technological innovation institutions, businesses, and individual citizens; calls on the Commission, therefore, to ensure that the inhabitants of European islands, particularly those furthest from mainland Europe, can participate fully and equitably in European mobility programmes such as Erasmus+, the European Solidarity Corps, DiscoverEU and the future Aim, Learn, Master, Achieve (ALMA) programme;
42.
Recalls the importance of EU programmes such as the Youth Guarantee; calls on the Member States to quickly implement this programme, in close alignment with EU funds such as the ESF+, to address the situation of young people who are not in employment, education or training, with particular concern for those living in rural areas and regions with natural or demographic constraints in their labour markets, including islands, in order to ensure that all young people under the age of 30 receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, vocational education or training, are able to develop the skills needed for employment opportunities in a wide range of sectors, or are offered a remunerated apprenticeship or traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education;
43.
Welcomes the efforts to make the Youth Guarantee more inclusive and to avoid any form of discrimination, including of young people living in remote, rural or disadvantaged urban areas or in overseas territories and island regions;
Culture
44.
Believes that culture and development of the cultural sector in islands are fundamental; considers that islands’ cultural and linguistic identities should be protected and promoted, including in educational settings, as they contribute to their enhancement, and that of the entire EU, on many levels;
45.
Calls on the Commission to make 2024 the European Year of Islands;
Agriculture and fisheries
46.
Calls on the Commission to assess the need for a regulation laying down specific measures in the area of agriculture for all NUTS 2 and NUTS 3 level islands with a view to achieving food autonomy and increasing the competitiveness of their products, without prejudice to existing instruments such as the programme of options specifically relating to remoteness and insularity (POSEI) and the regulation laying down specific measures for agriculture in favour of the smaller Aegean islands (10);
47.
Calls for actions aimed at bridging the economic gap between inland areas and coastal regions which very often persists in insular territories;
(10)
Regulation (EU) No 229/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 March 2013 laying down specific measures for agriculture in favour of the smaller Aegean islands (OJ L 78, 20.3.2013, p. 41).