The CPRUP 2020 conference in Saint-Martin

XXIVth Conference of Presidents of the Outermost Regions of Europe

Under the presidency of the Overseas Community of Saint-Martin

President Daniel Gibbs presided , Thursday February 6, 2020, the internal session of the Presidents of the Outermost Regions of Europe (OR). During this session, the Presidents discussed future issues and reaffirmed their desire to work jointly to preserve the interests of the nine territories. The President of Saint-Martin welcomed the presence of President Alfred Marie-Jeanne and the vice-presidents who traveled to Saint-Martin.

President Daniel Gibbs opened the session with a unifying speech, recalling “the urgency of continuing to work together to defend the interests of our Regions. Because, in the current political context, especially in France, no one will do it for us,” he insisted. “We are, at the same time, worried, united and determined,” said the president before presenting the results of his presidency.

Among the major issues of the presidency of Saint-Martin, 6 axes strong areas were the subject of in-depth work within the CPRUP in 2019:


Monitoring the implementation of the RUP Communication presented by the Commission in October 2017 ;
The defense of the status of the ORs, particularly in the context of negotiations relating to the new post-2020 programming period;
An analysis of the acquisition of legal status for the Conference;
The pursuit of joint activities between the OR and partnership sessions with the European Commission in areas of common interest;
The external visibility of the Conference;
The annual conference in Saint-Martin.


The presidency of Saint-Martin was responsible throughout its mandate of almost 15 months for the management of the CPRUP website, initially set up by the presidency Canarian (2017-2018). The site was updated regularly and made it possible to disseminate to the public all the activities carried out by the Conference or its regions.

Moreover, always with the aim of strengthening the visibility of the ORs, the Committee of Suivi met in May 2019 with the liaison unit of the European Parliament's research service.

As part of the liaison office's missions, focused on setting up information and communication towards regional and local actors and on improving cooperation with public authorities, this cooperation is a means of contributing to the development and implementation of European policies.

At the close of the internal session, President Gibbs recalled the need to maintain, “in constant euros”, for the period 2021-2027, the envelopes obtained over the period 2014-2020. The ORs must also “fight” to maintain the “historic” co-financing rate of 85%, which risks being reduced to 70%. “Far too many local beneficiaries, public and private, would not be able to co-finance projects up to 30%”, worried the President.

Another necessity for the 9 ORs , fight against the possibility of seeing the new “ESF Plus” additional cost allocation being introduced by simple redeployment of the current ERDF additional cost allocation. For Daniel Gibbs, "this would be detrimental, given our training needs."

The primary objective of the Saint-Martin Community for the post-2020 programming of the Structural Funds remains the obtaining of Own Operational Programs (OP) hosting credits commensurate with the real needs of the territory, including in terms of regional cooperation.

For the President of Saint-Martin, “we must be recognized in statistical matters . In the short term, it is therefore a question of obtaining the classification of Saint-Martin as a “NUTS 2” region, thanks to an exceptional application of European regulations, as was the case for Mayotte.

At the end of the session, the presidents signed the 2020 final declaration which reiterates the commitment of the ORs to constructive dialogue within the framework of a strengthened partnership with European institutions, and recalls the importance of 'a Europe that creates employment and social cohesion, refocused on the expectations of its inhabitants and its fundamental values.

The presidents will be mobilized to defend the differentiated legal status of the outermost regions during the future “Conference on the Future of Europe”, by establishing the main lines which will guide the future of the ORs within the European Union. They demonstrate their desire to actively contribute to the work to be undertaken so that the reality of our regions is not neglected in the definition of our common future. Finally, they refuse to allow cohesion policy and the common agricultural policy to be deliberately sacrificed for the benefit of new priorities of the Commission and certain Member States. They are therefore opposed to any reductions in budgetary allocations for cohesion policy, the common agricultural policy (POSEI and EAFRD) and the common fisheries policy.

The Presidents also call for the restoration of POSEI allocations during the transitional period and call for the maintenance of the historic co-financing rate of 85%, in order to ensure economic development, social progress as well as continued catch-up in terms of structuring equipment and convergence of the ORs on EU standard living standards.

Present at the table, Mr. Alfred MARIE-JEANNE president of the executive council of the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique, Mr. Mohamed SIDI, vice-president President of the Departmental Council of Mayotte, Mr. Juan ZAMORA-PADRON Deputy Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs of the C Islands