The Conference acknowledges that the outermost regions of the Community (the French overseas departments, Azores and Madeira and Canary Islands) suffer from major structural backwardness compounded by several phenomena (remoteness, island status, small size, difficult topography and climate, economic dependence on a few products), the permanence and combination of which severely restrain their economic and social development.
Konferenca priznava, da so najbolj oddaljene regije Skupnosti (francoski čezmorski departmaji, Azori in Madeira ter Kanarski otoki) prizadete zaradi velike strukturne zaostalosti, ki jo zaostruje več dejavnikov (oddaljenost, otoška lega, majhnost, težavna topografija in podnebje, ekonomska odvisnost od maloštevilnih proizvodov); ti zaradi svoje stalnosti in součinkovanja močno omejujejo njihov gospodarski in socialni razvoj.