1-Months ago, Correio dos Açores reported that Google was developing a project to install a submarine cable that would start in the United States of America, pass through Bermuda, and then connect to Europe, passing through Portugal and mooring in Sines. At the time, there was an impasse regarding the replacement of the submarine cables that connect the Azores and Madeira to the mainland and are at the end of their lives.
2-Considering the current situation, we launched a challenge so that the Region would not be left out of Google’s project, but rather would be ready to be a partner, remembering that this was an endeavor whose initiative fell to the Government of the Azores.
3-We learned as much as we could about the progress of the project, awaiting the final outcome without sensationalism.
4-On July 26, Bernardo Correia, a Google representative, presented the Azores government with the project that is underway, after having applied to the American regulator on July 4 for a license to build a 6,900-kilometre submarine fiber optic cable, which will run between the Azores and Sines, claiming that it will be the first direct link between the United States and Portugal, pointing out that Google intends to have the system operational by 2026.
5-At the ceremony to present the project, which took place at the Conceição Palace, the President of the Government José Manuel Bolieiro said: “I don’t want to assume public merit from private merit, what we have is a strategic vision and we did everything we could to make the choice for the Azores.”
6- We understand what Bolieiro wanted to emphasize, but the “formality” used may raise doubts about the Region’s commitment to being part of the project, which, being private, will certainly put the Azores on the international route in terms of communications between continents.
6-When we raise the issue at this point, it is because the region needs to be more determined and assertive of its rights. This is because we are facing other problems that are already making international headlines, such as the warning given by Brazilian writer and journalist Roberta Sousa about Portugal’s boldness and expansion.
7-The writer recalls that Portugal, known for its age of discovery in the 15th century, has already dominated vast regions around the world. Today, the country still has a significant Exclusive Economic Zone due to its archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira.
8-This vast maritime area gives Portugal not only exclusive fishing rights but also the opportunity to exploit maritime underwater mineral resources through a strategic continental shelf claim.
9-According to the journalist, Portugal thus has the potential to double its size, accessing vast natural resources and strengthening its economy, as is already being discussed in international arenas, and has bet on technology and sustainable exploitation to achieve this audacious goal, which is its Exclusive Economic Zone in the Atlantic.
10-Portugal is awaiting the decision of the United Nations, but in the meantime, the Autonomous Regions must continue to claim their share of the sea, due to the Exclusive Economic Zone that the Azores lend to Portugal.
11-The Economic and Social Council of the Azores, at its meeting held on July 25, asked for the instrument for recapitalizing the business fabric to be rethought, as only 1 million euros of the 20 million euros earmarked for small and medium-sized enterprises has been used. It’s a shame that it’s only now dawned on us that the bureaucracy involved in the applications is impossible for the companies targeted by the “recapitalization” program to comply with. It’s like “raining in the wet”. And so it goes with no horizon in sight. That’s all there is to it, but it’s going to be a bitter pill for many companies and many workers when the objective was certainly different, but incompetence in finding solutions prevails.
12-We have insisted on the need to combat the violence generated by drug use, in which users are victims, family members who are threatened and raped, and the elderly who are stalked and robbed.
13-We leave you with the example of the Directorate-General for Health and the National Republican Guard, which signed a national protocol to promote health and safety among the elderly population, seeking to break “isolation” and giving recommendations for health and safety. An example to follow!

Américo Natalino Viveiros is the editor in choef and director of the newspaper Correio dos Açores, he was a membrer of government in the first years of the Autonomy and has been a leading political figure of the center-right PSD political party for many years.

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from various leading thinkers and writers from the Azores to give the diaspora and those interested in the current Azores a sense of the major opinions on some of the archipelago’s issues.