Gozo Business Chamber underlines what Right to Stay means for Gozo in response to Commission’s call

The Gozo Business Chamber has submitted its response to the European Commission’s Call for Evidence on the Right to Stay Strategy: Your Region, Your Future, highlighting what this should mean for Gozo.

The Right to Stay strategy is a flagship policy framework aiming to ensure that all Europeans can remain and build their future in the place they call home, rather than being forced to relocate due to economic decline or lack of opportunities and essential services.

“For Gozo, the Right to Stay cannot be limited to the physical possibility of remaining on the island. It must also mean having access to meaningful employment, entrepreneurial opportunities, education, skills, essential services, connectivity and a good quality of life from within the region,” the Gozo Business Chamber said.

The Chamber’s position is that Gozo “should not be approached as a backward region. It is a resilient and economically active island region which continues to face structural disparities arising from its sectoral composition, connectivity constraints and the limited presence of certain higher value-added, export-oriented and knowledge-intensive sectors.”

The Gozo Chamber said that the appropriate response is not simply compensatory, and that the island requires developmental adjustment. It said that this adjustment must be supported by greater economic diversification; stronger start-up, scale-up and innovation ecosystems; improved opportunities for young people and entrepreneurs; the attraction of higher value-added investment and specialised talent; reliable physical and digital connectivity; and stronger regional data, territorial proofing and place-based policymaking.

It Holds that the Right to Stay Strategy should be closely aligned with the forthcoming EU Strategy for Islands.

“These initiatives should reinforce one another, particularly in relation to insularity, connectivity, cohesion policy, skills, innovation, State aid and the structural costs faced by island regions.”

The central objective should be to ensure that people are not compelled to leave their communities in order to access opportunity, the Gozo Business Chamber stressed.

“With the right policy framework at an EU level islands such as Gozo can become not only a place where people can stay, but one where they can build careers, develop businesses, innovate and thrive.”