Towards a European islands strategy: bringing solutions to the forefront

From the "Towards a European Islands Strategy" event

News / 09.3.23

Islands are a fundamental element of Europe’s geography. In addition to Malta, Cyprus and Ireland, which are island states, there are 26 regions belonging to 13 states that are considered island regions. This adds up to 286 islands in total, where more than 20 million people live. The European Union has great potential to transform islands’ institutional framework, both in terms of policies and governance.

Nevertheless, EU lacks of a common framework to compensate for the permanent systemic disadvantages of insularity. The Coppieters Foundation, together with EFA Islands’ Forum and its partners coming from places like Corsica, Canary Islands or Aland islands, organised the event “Towards a European islands Strategy: Bringing solutions to the forefront” to foster a common reflexion on the need to develop strategies enabling islands to overcome the barriers insularity causes.

There are long-standing demands for a better response to the demographic, economic or environmental challenges faced by EU islands, in addition to the negative impact tourism has on these territories, and this initiative aims is to lobby at the EU institutions with a united voice and pushing towards subsidiarity and direct decision-taking initiatives.

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This conference was financially supported by the European Parliament. The European Parliament is not liable for the content of the conference or the opinions of the speakers.

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This conference is a joint initiative of Coppieters Foundation, Fundació Darder-Mascaró, European Free Alliance and the Greens/EFA Group.

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