Regiões ultraperiféricas da União Europeia, que estratégia? O caso dos Açores e a evolução das RUPs-problema às RUPs-oportunidade | Outermost regions of the European Union, which strategy? The case of the Azores and the evolution of the ORs-problem to the

Abstract

The accession of Portugal and Spain to the European Communities in the 1980s brought a new geopolitical dimension to the process of European integration. The European Commu-nity thus acquired a privileged presence in the Atlantic through the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira and the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands. In this article, we propose to reflect on the importance of the strategies of the European Commis-sion towards these Regions, more precisely through the epistemological evolution from pro-blem-region to opportunity-region.