Whether they're islands, mountains or territories far from the mainland, such areas are considered by the EU to be regions with a strong natural geographical handicap. The EU's cohesion policy, with its powerful budget, gives these regions substantial resources to help them try to catch up with metropolitan areas. The Europe Now team travels to the French overseas department of Guadeloupe to take a closer look.

With the goal of "levelling up" in mind, nine Ultra-Peripheral Regions, or UPRs, have received €13 billion over the last seven years. Six of these UPRs are French. In the case of France, around 18 percent of the total EU Structural Funds goes to 3 percent of the population. On the face of it, that's a major boost for UPRs. But is that money being used optimally?

We went to see for ourselves in Guadeloupe, an archipelago nearly 7,000 kilometres from the French mainland. It is set to receive a billion euros from the EU in 2021-2027. Unemployment is around twice the national rate; a third of the population lives below the poverty line and water shortages are frequent. So why does more EU investment not necessarily translate into better living standards?

In part two of the programme, we meet the president of Guadeloupe’s chamber of commerce and industry, Patrick Vial-Collet, who also owns the island's only five-star hotel. He gives us a taste of the hospitality sector's post-Covid recovery, and touches on efforts to create jobs in that industry.

MEP Maxette Pirbakas meets us in the famous Parc de la Source to show us Guadeloupe's biodiversity and to highlight her efforts to promote that at the EU level.

Socialist senator and former regional president Victorin Lurel takes us on a tour of MACTe, Guadeloupe's spectacular memorial and culture centre dedicated to the memory of the slave trade, which was co-financed by the European Union.

FRANCE 24's Europe reporters Luke Brown and Isabelle Romero visit ski resorts that are adapting to climate change, as well as seeing how smaller ski resorts cope with being so far from the beaten path.

And Sophie Samaille zooms in on the Just Transition Fund which puts the green transition at the heart of EU investment policy.

>> Watch part one of the show

Show presented by Armen Georgian, produced by Johan Bodin, filmed on location by Johan Bodin and Stéphane Bodenne, with Luke Brown. Editor in chief, Caroline de Camaret.

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.