Portugal Raises Alarm Over EU Cuts Threatening Azores and Madeira

Portugal’s foreign minister practically sent up a flare over Brussels this week: keep brushing aside the EU’s far-flung territories and the bill will come due sooner than anyone thinks. From Greenland’s icy fjords to the volcanic slopes of Madeira and the Azores, Lisbon argues that Europe’s “frontline islands” underpin everything from food security to strategic autonomy—and yet still fight for crumbs at budget time.

Quick bearings

• Paulo Rangel told MPs in Lisbon that treating the outer rim as an after-thought is “a shortcut to trouble”.

• The next long-term EU budget (2028-2034) will decide whether regional programmes such as POSEI grow or wither.

• Portugal’s own islands control vast Exclusive Economic Zones, key for fisheries, deep-sea minerals and green hydrogen pilots.

• Experts warn that under-funding today could invite foreign power play, citing the 2019 US flirtation with buying Greenland.

Lisbon’s red flag—and why it matters now

Standing at the parliamentary lectern on 13 January, Rangel evoked the moment when former US president Donald Trump openly mused about acquiring Greenland. Europe’s lack of sustained investment, he argued, left space for “geostrategic fantasies”. The minister stitched the anecdote into a broader claim: if the Union brands itself a global actor, it cannot keep “semi-ignoring its own territories beyond the mainland shoreline.”

For Portugal the warning is personal. The Azores archipelago lies in the middle of the Atlantic aviation corridor; Madeira helps extend EU search-and-rescue reach toward West Africa. Any step back, Rangel said, would be paid later “in lost leverage, lost data and lost resilience.”

What the islands are actually getting—and what they still need

Portuguese policymakers brandish a tidy list of numbers to prove the point:• €315 M in recovery-plan funds earmarked for Madeira between now and 2026, targeting health, broadband and a low-carbon ferry fleet.• €725 M channelled to Azorean projects, from hydrogen hubs to hospital overhauls.• An annual slice of €106.21 M under the agricultural POSEI pot shared between the two regions.

Yet officials in Funchal and Ponta Delgada say structural handicaps—shipping costs, small markets, climate shocks—can swallow those figures whole. Regional governments want:– a permanent 85 % co-financing rate for cohesion projects;– dedicated money for under-sea cable redundancy;– a lighter regulatory touch on state-aid caps so they can lure tech pilots.

Brussels’ ledger: who gets what in 2026

The draft 2026 EU accounts lift POSEI by a symbolic €3 M to €673 M for all nine outermost regions. By contrast, the education envelope for Greenland alone runs to €202.5 M over 2021-2027 and could jump to €530 M in the 2028-2034 cycle. Lisbon is not attacking Nuuk’s windfall; it is pointing out the political optics: if the Union can double cash for a territory that actually left the bloc in 1985, why trim or freeze schemes for regions that remain full EU soil?

Commission officials counter that cohesion rules already offer the islands higher grant rates, and that new climate-adaptation funding streams will arrive in 2027. But behind closed doors many admit that defence, migration and Ukraine reconstruction are muscling their way up the priority ladder, squeezing the envelope for places like São Miguel or Porto Santo.

Strategic frontier or budget line-item? Experts weigh in

Academics from the University of the Azores to think-tanks in Brussels share a near-identical refrain: the outermost rim is Europe’s early-warning radar on climate, food insecurity and maritime competition. Neglecting it, they say, risks:• supply-chain fragility—islanders import 80 % of basic goods;• higher youth out-migration toward mainland cities;• missed bets on marine renewables that could slash continental energy imports.

Some propose an “Atlantic DARPA” modelled on the US agency that funds high-risk tech, but focused on volcano monitoring, tidal turbines and ocean genomics—areas where the islands possess living laboratories.

Next milestones—and what to watch in Portugal

Spring 2026: The Commission unveils its outermost-regions package, including a possible one-stop desk for grant applications.

Summer 2026: Spain, France and Portugal meet in Las Palmas to hammer out a joint RUP stance before budget talks turn serious.

End-2026: EU finance ministers debate the final ceilings for agriculture and cohesion—crucial for the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework.

Lisbon’s strategy until then is clear: keep outermost regions on every agenda, remind partners that Europe’s map does not end at Cabo da Roca, and nudge a budget line into a geopolitical insurance policy. Whether that message lands—or is drowned out by bigger, louder crises—will shape the fortunes of Portugal’s Atlantic islands for the next decade.