Europe Rendezvous brings you a special programme from the Azores, a beautiful and remote archipelago in the Atlantic. The dramatic volcanic islands constitute an Autonomous Region of Portugal, and also an Outermost Region of the EU. That means their relatively small population of around 240,000 inhabitants receives outsized help from the EU – about €160 million in cohesion funds every year. In this second part of the show, we focus on what is all around the Azores: the Atlantic Ocean.

In 2024, the Azores implemented the Marine Protected Area, which protects almost 300,000 square kilometres, or 30 percent of the water that surrounds the islands. It means that fishing is banned in certain zones. We speak with MEP Paulo do Nascimento Cabral, one of the legislators for the European Ocean Pact.

We are lucky enough to get a glimpse of an animal that is at the meeting point between sustainable tourism and the Blue Economy of the Azores – the local whales – as we join a tour company that has used EU funds to finance its new fleet of electric vessels, thus reducing the carbon footprint of whale-watching.

Our senior reporter Luke Brown visits the most distant of the Azorean islands, Flores, where just this year, work began to repair the harbour destroyed by Hurricane Lorenzo in 2019. EU funds are set to finance 85 percent of the total rebuilding cost of €197 million.

Luke Brown also investigates regional efforts to reduce brain drain and provide incentives for young people to stay on the islands. He visits the School of the Sea, which trains young Azoreans in all types of maritime careers, thanks to EU funds. We discuss brain drain and updating the "rent-seeking" economy of the past with MEP Ana Vasconcelos, at the emblematic Nonagon Science and Technology Park.

Finally, the Azores have the perfect climate to raise dairy cows, and they account for over 35 percent of Portugal's entire dairy production. We meet with a local farmer, who shows us her "happy cows", which are free to roam outside every day of the year!

Watch moreEU solidarity in the Azores: Miracle or mirage? (part 1)

Show presented by Armen Georgian, produced by Renaud Lefort, filmed on location by Renaud Lefort and Stéphane Bodenne, with Luke Brown.

Video editing: Aude Richelet, Joël Procope, Gilles Terrier, Aurélien Porcher, Lucille Latour. Editor-in-chief: Caroline de Camaret.

Special thanks to Terra Azul, Anne-Marie Brossard, Visit Azores, Regional Secretariat for the Sea and Fisheries, Rui Martins, The Ocean Azores Media House, Azores Regional Government, João Inocêncio Gomes

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the DG Regional and Urban Policy. Neither the European Union nor the DG Regional and Urban Policy can be held responsible for them.