French Guiana, an Outermost Region of the European Union: issues and challenges in the XXI century

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Introduction
The arrival of the Italian navigator Cristóvão Colombo (1451Colombo ( -1506 to the New World in October 1492 sets the Iberian maritime expansions and awakens the greed of other European powers such as England, the Netherlands and France. These countries, involved in religious quarrels, contest the division of the world between the Catholic kingdoms of Castile and Portugal. This division is granted by the papal bulls of June 1481, Aeterni regis of Pope Sixtus IV  and Intera caetera of May 1493, edited by Pope Alexander VI . In June 1494, this pope defined the line of division of the world with the Treaty of Tordesillas, which led other powers like France to challenge the Iberian monopoly on the maritime trade. This is how, at the beginning of the occupation of the New World in the XVI century, France, to also benefit from its wealth, resort to piracy and smuggling (BOWN: 2013, p.11-16).
During his third trip to America, in August 1498, Christopher Columbus traveled for the first time to the coast of Guiana. As for France and its project of colonization and foundation of an Equinoctial France between the Orinoco and Amazonas rivers, the first attempt is made in Maranhao. After three years of occupation (1612)(1613)(1614)(1615) (BUREAU, 1935).
From a religious point of view, Jesuits are the first to settle in Guiana with the objective of evangelizing the Amerindians by creating agricultural establishments and planting cocoa, coffee, cassava, cotton, and sugar. Dominating the colonial economy in Guiana, the priests of the Society of Jesus until their departure also provide spiritual service to settlers and slaves (LE ROUX, 2013).
In the XIX century, during the provisional government of the Second Republic (1848-1852), the decree that abolished slavery was signed on April 27, 1848, thus freeing almost 13,000 slaves in Guiana. Guianese citizens receive French citizenship and voting rights on this occasion, which is restored in France on August 11, 1848. As for the economy, with the closure of plantations, it collapses until 1855 when a gold deposit is discovered in eastern Guiana, in Arataye, an affluent of Approuague. At the height of this gold rush, 10,000 gold prospectors arrive in the territory and the LIMA-PEREIRA, Rosuel. French Guiana, an Outermost Region of the European Union: issues and challenges in the XXI century Dossiê Diálogos, Maringá-PR, Brasil, v. 24, n. 2, p. 125-143, mai./ago. 2020 127 mining has its decline with the Second World War. Thus, another important event that debuts in the XIX century and ends in the XX century is the creation of a penal colony in Guiana (BASSIÈRES, 1936).
Since the revolutionary period, Cayenne has received outlawed monarchists arrested after the coup d'état on September 4, 1797. Under the Second Empire, Napoleon III  formalized, on May 30, 1854, the creation of a penal colony whose objective is also to populate Guiana, thus receiving more than 3,000 prisoners. Convicts are identified according to the crimes and offenses committed as "transported", "relegated" and "deported". In nearly a century of the penal colony existence, 70,000 prisoners have died in Guiana (SANCHEZ, 2015). It was only on France is often referred to as "The Hexagon" because of the geometrical shape of its territory. This metonymy dates from the 1960s after the regional planning policy initiated by President Charles Brazil. Finally, what regional integration Guyana can aim for on the Guiana Shield taking into account its demographics and economy, given its historical past and geopolitical location.
Essentially, our study proposes to analyze the challenges that Guiana has to face in a globalized and socially changing world in the XXI century.

Departments
The constitution of the Fifth Republic of October 27, 1946 creates the French Union that refers to the political organization of France and its Second colonial empire . This constitution in its article 60 unifies the territories associating the metropolis, metropolitan France, the overseas departments, DOMs, and the overseas territories, TOMs. It also suppresses the differentiated status that existed between "citizens" and "indigenous", according to the definition of the Preamble of that constitution: "France shall form with its overseas peoples a Union founded upon equal rights and duties, without distinction of race or religion". The same idea is repeated in France's accession. However, we can question how Guiana stands between this community legislation and its geopolitical, economic, and cultural context.

Guiana, between cooperation and economic and regional geopolitical interests
Guiana's geographical position has unique potential. It is a strategic area in the world with its own characteristics; in the field for research and innovation, in the area of biodiversity, in the study of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, in pharmacology, in the development of renewable energies, in the application of space technologies. These elements allow an European presence on the South American continent due to France. The natural and economic challenges facing Guiana have led the EU to resort to strategies for its development while exploiting the assets of this OR.
Another objective of the EU is to make these regions known.  This migratory dynamic is composed of single men, from 25 to 40 years old, with little connection to the urban environment (PIANTONI, 2008, p. 140). We will see that with legal mining controlled by the State, illegal or clandestine mining activities conducted by illegal prospectors are developed in parallel. This type of gold mining, confronted today by the armed forces, has harmful consequences for the environment and directly impacts indigenous populations. legal mining industry prefers to use the term "mining operator" rather than gold prospector who has a negative connotation and is linked to illegal or clandestine mining.

Guianese challenges in the face of its internal issues in a changing world
In Guiana, it is estimated that, on average, 10 tons of gold are mined illegally and that between 6,000 and 10,000 gold prospectors live illegally in the territory. Illegal mining activities in Operation Anaconda, which also aims to guarantee respect for the sovereignty of the national territory, is replaced in February 2008 by "Operation Harpy" (royal-hawk). This operation aims to eradicate illegal mining, to protect the aquatic and forest environment, to guarantee the safety of the local population against trafficking and criminal activities. Operation Harpia is directed by the regional Mayor and the Public Prosecutor and has as a new target to attack the logistic networks of illegal mining, that is, to dismantle the network that supplies materials and food to the prospectors.
This tactic of establishing dams on rivers used by the military causes changes in routes, delays, increased prices and decreased transported products 19 .
In 2007, 113 "Anaconda" operations were conducted in Guiana against illegal prospectors.
These operations helped to slow the expansion of illegal mining. When the operation "Harpia" was created, the armed forces increased the number of attacks on clandestine locations, destroying the confiscated equipment. Even with improved controls on roads and rivers, illegal prospectors have nevertheless become more mobile and discreet. They operate at night making it more difficult to be indivisible national space did not allow the establishment of appropriate public policies for the territory. Therefore, since then, France has resorted to social legislation that consists of transferring public funds. As an example, we can mention the Family Aid Fund, CAF, which is a private law body, with departmental competence and responsible for the payment of financial benefits of a family or social nature. This fund also has a social action policy to encourage and support local actors, authorities, and associations, in the development of services adapted to the necessities of families, such as daycare centers, leisure centers, actions to support parenthood, animation of social life, among others (BICHOT, 2012).
In Guiana, CAF offers benefits to seven out of ten families, including families with children. Of these 36,200 supported families, the majority are single parents (58%), followed by couples with children (39%) and more marginally couples without children (3%). The Family Aid Fund provides housing or social assistance to 65% of isolated people, including 35% men and 30% women.
Finally, even if people in an irregular situation on the French territory are not beneficiaries of this aid fund, this situation of false progress without real endogenous development thus generates a migratory appeal in the region. 23 From the point of view of the international context at the end of the XX century, three political events will influence the immigration flow towards Guiana: -the economic and political crises in Haiti with the death of dictator François Duvalier   -the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964Brazil ( -1985, the increase in poverty, social unevenness, and violence in the country; all of these events are factors that drive regional immigration to In metropolitan and overseas France, immigration, be it chosen, legal, or spontaneous, irregular economic, severely suffers from a segregationist process. Unemployment rates reveal system inconsistencies. 16% of immigrants are unemployed, this rate is twice the rate of people born in France. Another notable segregation is socio-spatial segregation, and this is noticeable in the location of immigrant neighborhoods. Finally, in Guiana, economic and socio-spatial segregation is compounded by the identity crisis that overwhelms the creoles. The first is endogenous in the face of a multiform society and in full demographic dynamism; the second is and exogenous regarding the creole process of assimilation to the nation without losing its Caribbean and Amazon specificity.

Conclusion
Guianese society is undergoing changes and an internal rebalancing due to its demographic growth. In the 1970s, creoles represented 70% of the population, in 1999 that percentage increased to 45%. Another important factor of this mutation, in addition to immigration, is the political  , in the government of the first term of President François Mitterrand . In the case of Guiana, Decentralization gives the hegemonic creole community, above all, the role of mediator with the State. This role is questioned leading the local society to reevaluate its socio-cultural foundations.
One of the limits of the Decentralization law is the one of the societies. LOOM's drafting is based on Article 299, paragraph 2, of the Amsterdam Treaty which consolidates the creation of the European Community, EC and the legal integration of the overseas Departments. According to Article 1 of the LOOM (free translation), "economic development, regional planning and employment in the overseas departments are, due to their economic, social and structural situation recognized [...] as priorities for the nation". These two laws, national and supranational, agree on the necessity for reforms but do not define development strategies.
Meanwhile, debates disturb Guiana that seeks policies for economic and social integration at the risk of social explosion.
The outermost regions, ORs, first recognized in 1992 by the Maastricht Treaty and defined in 2009 with Treaty of Lisbon coming into force, are defined by Article 349 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union, TFEU. According to this Treaty the "structural economic and social situation" of these nine remote regions, with difficult and dependent climates, "severely restrain their development"; Guiana, as an OR, is concerned with the EU's cohesion policy, which consists of reducing the differences in wealth and development between the regions of the European Union as it falls under the category of "least developed region". This qualification is given according to economic and social criteria, which allows it to benefit from larger allocations from the European Structural and Investment Funds, ESIF, or obtain specific assignments from the European Regional Development Fund, ERDF. 26 Finally, the ORs participate in the Territorial Cooperation Program, INTERREG, cofinanced by the ERDF fund. These development programs made € 13.8 billion available between 2014-2020, allowing Guiana to participate in regional cooperation projects with Brazil or Suriname, for example. The construction of the 378-meter cable-stayed bridge, 15 meters above the river, opened in 2017, at a cost of 22 million euros, between the border cities São Georges and Oiapoque is the result of these investments.
The "bridge of friendship", useless for now, but symbolic, has the geopolitical objective of breaking the isolation of the city of São Georges and its 3500 inhabitants. In the future, it should also promote an opening to South America for France, as well as commercialization between the European Union and the Southern Common Market, MERCOSUR. Even if Guiana's borders are 26 The European Regional Development Fund, ERDF, operates in the policy of economic, social and territorial cohesion. Its aim is to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the European Union, by correcting imbalances between its regions. In France, in 2014-2020, the ERDF represents 8.4 billion euros devoted to "investment for growth and employment", consolidating the labor market and regional economies. To this budget, 1.1 billion euros is added for "European territorial cooperation", which aims to support cohesion in the European Union through cross-border, transnational, and inter-regional cooperation. Agence nationale de la Cohésion des territoires. Available on: https://www.europe-en-france.gouv.fr/fr/fondseuropeens/fonds-europeen-de-developpement-regional-FEDER Consulted on: June 13, 2020. areas of interfaces, places of exchange, zones of passage, contacts with cities on both sides of the rivers, nevertheless no cultural discontinuity exists. We can confirm this with the Amerindian population that live and circulate on the right or left bank of the rivers, claiming the forest space as their land and demanding freedom of movement and activities. In Maroni, the Indians do not refuse French citizenship, which offers legal protection against the violence committed against them. In Oiapoque, many Indians flee from intolerant evangelical churches accepting a French influence transmitted by the school and administration, receiving free medical care and social benefits such as the Minimum Integration Income, (Revenu minimum d'insertion -RMI), created in 1988 and the Solidarity Active Income (Revenu de solidarité active -RSA) created in 2007.
To conclude, we can say that Guiana's difficulties of a material nature are recognized and depend mainly on funding in the sectors of education, health, infrastructure, and security. From a regional point of view, it must increasingly integrate the Guiana Shield even if it adds new geopolitical problems. Our study aims to provide a brief reading of the challenges that Guiana must face in the light of three ranges: legal, economic, and social. This study seeks to go beyond the declaration of uncertainties and tries to detect the signs of a possible reconciliation between Guiana and its neighbors. The Guiana Shield, as a region, must recognize the legitimacy of differentiation and the cooperation requirements for better integration of the Amazonian population. The result of this article can be disappointing if we consider only the economic and legal aspects of neighborhood relations without considering the circulation of individuals and the socio-cultural wealth.