The IX Jornadas Parlamentares Atlânticas (Atlantic Parliamentary Days) were held from 17 to 20 June in the Autonomous Region of the Azores, bringing together the Presidents and Deputies of the Parliaments of the Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands and Cape Verde.
The Atlantic Parliamentary Days, established in 1990, and after a 10-year interregnum, were resumed in 2016, gathering, every two years, the Presidents and parliamentarians of the above-mentioned Parliaments. The event took place in the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores for the third time.
The Atlantic Parliamentary Days are based on the historical, political, economic, social, cultural and affective relation between the Atlantic archipelagos of Macaronesia, promoting, from these principles, a greater proximity and spaces of dialogue, sharing and reflection, namely in what concerns current common interests and challenges.
The event was organised in such a way that the Members of the aforementioned Parliaments addressed specific topics, divided into working groups, which resulted in several documents and conclusions, as follows: Group I – “The outermost regions, the States and the European Union”; Group II – “The economies of Macaronesia in the context of the Global Economy: special incidence in Tourism, Commerce and Primary Sector”; Group III – “Macaronesia and climate change”; Group IV – “Education, Culture and Gender Equality”, which also included sectoral visits to various public and private institutions.
The IX Atlantic Parliamentary Days culminated in the signing of an Institutional Declaration by the Presidents of those Parliamentary Assemblies, unanimously approved and entitled “Declaration of the Azores”.