As the European Union finds itself facing the challenge of redefining the structure of cohesion policy in a world that is changing at a dizzying pace and is punctuated by continuous crises, Europe’s island regions are raising a cry of alarm so as not to be forgotten.
The territorial discontinuity between the islands and the rest of the European continent constantly generates an increase in costs and risks leaving entire territories out of the benefits of full participation in the Single Market. For this reason, a change of pace is needed.
“We are all aware that we are experiencing an extremely delicate phase, but we want a stronger Europe and to give strength to the process of European integration. We cannot lose sight of the territories and communities”, explains the president of the Sardinia Region, Alessandra Todde.
The debate on the future of the island regions can no longer be treated as a niche issue, but represents the test of the stability of the cohesion policy and the European integration project in an increasingly unstable international scenario.
European competitiveness starts from the territories
The right to remain
Sardinia has positioned itself as the leader of this reflection, proposing a vision that tries to undermine the rigidity of European bureaucracy. The criticism made by Todde is profound and concerns the very essence of European cohesion policy, that is, reducing development disparities between the regions of the Member States.
“Cohesion objectives cannot continue to be an exclusive prerogative of cohesion policy”, makes it clear the president of the Sardinia Region, calling for a real leap in institutional quality. “I’ll explain it with an image: it is necessary to break down the glass walls that divide cohesion policy from all other policies of the European Union”.
For islands like Sardinia, the challenge is based on the ability to guarantee its citizens the possibility of choosing their own future without necessarily being pushed to emigrate to seek better living conditions.
Based on the conclusions of report on the Single Market by former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta – commissioned by Brussels in 2024 – Todde recalls the importance of the “fifth freedom” of the free movement space in Europe: the freedom to remain. “In our geographically peripheral and economically fragile territories this right takes on even greater importance to avoid social and economic desertification”.
This is not a request for more non-repayable resources, but to develop a greater efficiency strategy for the entire system, which takes peripheral and island regions into consideration in every legislative and political aspect. As the president of the Sardinia Region underlines, “more equalization between the territories translates into a more solid internal market and greater competitiveness. A paradigm shift is needed”.
The blind spot of European policies
This location finds a shore on another island, just north of Sardinia. In Corsica, the president of the Assembly of the French territorial community, Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis, denounces that the islands are currently relegated to “a blind corner of European policies”.
Although the founding Treaties of the Union clearly speak of specific attention for the island regions, the reality is very different and the Brussels institutions often prove deaf to these peculiarities. Maupertuis is categorical when she speaks of insularity as a concept in its own right, a condition that is independent of macroeconomic statistics.
“When you are on an island, you are on an island. No ifs or buts. When ships and planes didn’t leave or arrive during the Covid-19 pandemic, we were cut off from the rest of the world.”
To get out of this stalemate – which existed before the health crisis and continued afterward – the president of the Corsica Assembly proposes an “insularity clause” to be applied not only to cohesion policy, but also to all the others adopted in Brussels, “to oblige to take into consideration the singularity of these territories in the application of the laws”. According to Maupertuis, however, this consideration for the islands must not be interpreted as passive compensation or economic compensation.
“On the contrary, it is a strategy to enhance the opportunities that the islands can offer and equal access to the Single Market for all territories”.
The price of being an island
Some data comes from Spain that quantify the economic weight of this isolation. Margalida Prohens Rigo, president of the government of the Balearic Islands, reports that the surcharge for freight transport to and from the islands “is estimated between 74 percent and 100 percent compared to the intracontinental one”. A gap that risks canceling out any innovation effort, for various reasons.
“Not only does it make it impossible for our businesses to compete on equal terms within the Single Market, but it also complicates the efforts of public administrations to diversify the local economy.”
It is for this reason that Prohens Rigo insists on the need to recognize this handicap in practice when applying European legislation. “The government of the Balearic Islands has defended the need for a specific regime for the islands of the European Union, which allows exemption from the general rule, especially in the transport of goods.”
The Mediterranean as an extension of European cohesion
Productivity and innovation in the Northern Islands
Even in the islands of Northern Europe, Brussels is asked to study and apply policies adapted to the specificities of these territories. Filip Reinhag, deputy mayor of the Gotland Region, in Sweden, reminds us that there is no European growth and integration without the contribution of all the territories of the Union, especially if the regions “are not allowed to really bring the best of themselves to the table”.
In this context Reinhag raises above all the problem of stagnant productivity and the housing crisis: “We need specific sector-based, territory-based policies that restore strength to local communities.” This is echoed by Anders Ekström, regional councilor of the Åland Islands, in Finland.
“We must continue to explain the special needs of the islands to our European colleagues,” he says of the struggle to make even the smallest issues understood. It starts with everyday things that can burden daily life, like “checking if we can catch the last ferry of the day or if we need a hotel room for the night,” and moves on to larger issues of economic development.
“It is very difficult for regions without universities or with a micro-enterprise fabric to take part in pan-European projects,” warns Ekström.
