On the invitation of the Executive Council of Corsica the European Alliance Group of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) will hold its extraordinary meeting in Ajaccio (Corsica) and adopt a declaration on 'EU policies for island, mountain and rural areas'.  The meeting is being hosted by Mr Gilles Simeoni, President of the Executive Council of Corsica, who has also recently been appointed as Chairman of the Island Commission of the Conference of Maritime Peripheral Regions and Ms Marie Antoinette Maupertuis, member of the Executive of Corsica and CoR rapporteur on the opinion "Entrepreneurship in islands"

Mr Stanislaw Szwabski, President of the European Alliance Group welcomes the meeting being organised in Corsica and highlighted that the EA Group will continue to advocate for a balanced and harmonious development across all EU regions and for adequate support for islands and peripheral regions. He added that the European Alliance group would pursue a change, via the EU institutions, in future policies and funding to be more reflective of island, mountain and rural areas

The seminar will highlight the EU objective of ensuring territorial economic and social cohesion and balanced development across all EU regions; the treaties recognise that special attention should be given to territories with structural geographic and demographic handicaps such as island, mountain and rural areas. However, the seminar will also discuss increases in regional disparities, how current support mechanisms do not fully take into account their specificities. The objective of the seminar will be to provide a better understanding of constraints faced by island, mountain and rural areas and will seek to put forward recommendations for future EU policies to improve the state of cohesion in these areas.