Traduction de «the handicapped » (Anglais → Français) :

9. Takes the view that the eight biophysical criteria proposed by the Commission could, in principle, be suitable for delimiting areas with natural handicaps to a degree; stresses, however, that the criteria may not be used in all cases for objectively delimiting areas with natural handicaps;

J. whereas the socio-economic criteria used prior to the 2005 reform by some Member States may no longer be used to delimit areas with ‘natural handicaps’, but may continue to be used to define areas with ‘specific handicaps’, which are supported pursuant to Article 50(3)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005,

2. Considers that Member States have to be allowed to take into account not only biophysical criteria but also some socio-economic criteria in the ‘fine-tuning’ that the Member States have to do to prepare the map of areas with natural handicaps, and to take depopulation' criterion into account, as increased depopulation worsens the natural handicaps of agricultural areas and increases the agronomic difficulties of these regions; supports also the inclusion of insularity among national criteria for areas with natural handicaps;

at a lower altitude, the presence over the greater part of the area in question of slopes too steep for the use of machinery or requiring the use of very expensive special equipment, or a combination of these two factors, where the handicap resulting from each taken separately is less acute but the combination of the two gives rise to an equivalent handicap.

(2) The particular geographical situation of the French overseas departments (FOD) imposes additional transport costs in supplying essential products, for processing and as agricultural inputs. In addition, objective factors arising as a result of insularity and extreme remoteness impose further constraints on operators and producers in the FOD that severely handicap their activities. This is true particularly in the case of the supply of cereals, which are by and large not produced and cannot be produced on a large scale in the FOD, rendering them dependent on external sources of supply. These handicaps can be alleviated by lowering the ...[+++] price of these essential products. It is therefore appropriate to introduce specific supply arrangements with a view to ensuring supply to the FOD from local production and to mitigating the additional costs of the remoteness, insularity and outermost location of the FOD.

The work and thinking of this group will concentrate on state aids and public-service obligations in the transport sector (particularly the adaptation of existing Community instruments to the specific features of the outermost regions and offsetting their handicaps) and the mobilisation of the Structural Funds (particularly as regards infrastructure) in order to maintain and expand the transport resources intended to overcome the handicaps imposed by these regions' remote location.