Madeira official urges EU to protect ultraperiphery status

Rubina Leal, President of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira, met with Younous Omarjee, Vice-President of the European Parliament and head of the Committee on Regional Development (REGI), to advocate for the protection of Madeira as an Ultraperiphery Region (RUP).

Leal argued that Madeira’s economic development should not result in reduced support from the European Union. She emphasized that despite GDP growth, the region continues to face permanent challenges such as geographic distance, insularity, small market size, complex orography, and high transport costs.

Leal called for the concrete application of Article 349 of the Treaty to ensure differentiated policies and financing. She warned that relying solely on development indicators to determine the intensity of support risks undermining the very purpose of the ultraperiphery status, stating that penalizing Madeira for its development would effectively penalize the success of European cohesion policies.