Bulgaria Undertook the Presidency of the Danube Region Strategy of the EU for One Year

Deputy Minister Denitsa Nikolova: Bulgaria undertakes the enormous challenge and the responsibility to manage in parallel two Presidencies of key significance for the EU.

The Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Denitsa Nikolova accepted officially the Presidency of the Strategy of the European Union for the Danube Region for one year. This happened during the Sixth Annual Forum of the Strategy for the Danube Region which was held on 18 and 19 October in the Hungarian capital Budapest. The motto of the forum this year is “For secure, related and prosperous Danube Region” and subject-matters related to the energy security, the development of the regional infrastructure and the improvement of the connexity of the region were discussed within the framework of the event. “Bulgaria undertakes the enormous challenge but also the responsibility to manage in parallel two Presidencies of key significance for the European Union”, Deputy Minister Nikolova declared, having in mind also the forthcoming Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2018.

“Bulgaria undertakes the enormous challenge but also the responsibility to manage in parallel two Presidencies of key significance for the European Union”, Deputy Minister Nikolova declared, having in mind also the forthcoming Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2018. She pointed out that this makes the national task even more complicated but noted down that Bulgaria has a unique chance both to manage the European Agenda and to enrich its knowledge, to share practices and experience at the development of policies, rendering an account also of the national priorities for economic growth, creation of workplaces, reduction of the regional differences and enhancement of the territorial rapprochement. “The Danube macroregional strategy is one of these unique approaches, providing possibilities for cooperation and building up networks between the member-states within the region of the Danube River. The Strategy introduces and shares as the main principle “Europe without Borders” – in this integration we have countries from the EU, we have such which are at the stage pre-accession process, we also have states beyond the EU”, she said.

The Danube Strategy was approved in 2011. It comprises 14 states and over 100 million people which is one fifth of the population of the EU. Nine of the countries are members of the European Union – Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania, and the remaining five – Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine are located in the Danube Basin. The Strategy is based on the regional approach – encouragement of the joint work amongst a wide circle of stakeholders for coping with the general challenges, but without the creation of new institutions.

In a global plan the implementation of the Danube Strategy should turn the region into an attractive place for living, which offers good possibilities for work, clean countryside and rich cultural life. The focus is in the cooperation and the utilization of the general possibilities as, for instance, final completion of transport connections, reduction of the pollution and the hazard of floods, limitation of the dependence on the energy providers, coping with the demographic changes and so on.

The Danube Strategy is based on four priorities called pillars – connexity, environment, building up of prosperity and sustainability of the region. They on their hand contain 11 spheres of cooperation: “Mobility and intermodality”, “Sustainable energy”, “Culture and tourism” within the framework of the first pillar, “Quality of the waters”, “Risk management”, “Biodiversity, landscapes”, “Quality of the air and soils” in the second pillar, “Society of knowledge”, “People and skills” and “Competitiveness” in the third and “Institutional capacity and cooperation” and “Security” in the fourth. Each of the spheres has two states – coordinators. Bulgaria is in partnership in the priority sphere 3 “Culture and tourism” with Romania and in priority sphere 11 “Security” with Germany.

The objective of the Strategy is to develop the enormous economic potential of the Danube River, the second longest river in Europe (2850 km), which connects the countries from Central Europe, with the Black Sea region, Southern Caucasus and Central Asia.

One of its specific tasks is the improvement of the navigation and sailing, removing the obstacles before the navigability of the river and the increase of the transported goods by 20 % up to year 2020, as compared to the levels of 2010. An important aspect in the cooperation amongst the Danube states is also the preservation of the biodiversity and the environment. The downstream of the Danube River, for instance, is the most poorly developed economic zone, but the biodiversity in it is preserved to the biggest degree whilst upstream of the Danube River 80 % of the diversity of species and habitats are lost because of over-industrialization.

The problem with the management of the risk of floods also does not know any limits and should be solved with common efforts. The competitiveness of the region, which may be improved through joint actions for rendering assistance to the small and the medium enterprises, the creation of clusters, stimulation of the innovations and the research activity is of significance as well.

The Danube Region is one of the most perspective tourist destinations in Europe as there are unique natural facts on its territory, which may attract tourists from all over the world – these are, for instance, cross-border moist areas, amongst which the lakes Kalarash – Srebarna, Suhaya – Complex of Belen Islands, Bistrets – Island of Ibisha. There are 9 sites on the territory of little Bulgaria, which are included in the List of UNESCO for preservation of the world cultural heritage: 2 natural and 7 architectural ones. The creation of common tourist products, common cultural corridors, cultural routes, acquaintance with cultural crafts and productions has a great perspective.

The Strategy aims at close cooperation amongst the states so that all the available means for financing from the EU should be optimally used. The activities find support from various financial instruments of the EU: the European structural and social funds, European territorial cooperation, Horizon 2020, the Programme for competitiveness of the enterprises and small and medium enterprises, the Programme for education, youth and sports, the Programme for culture and the audio-visual sector, the Connecting Europe Mechanism and so on. From the adoption of the Strategy in 2011 the National Coordinator of Bulgaria has been a representative of the political cabinet of the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works at level Deputy Minister, aimed at guaranteeing the political commitment, needed for successful coordination and progress on it.

The Presidency of Bulgaria of the Danube Strategy will comprise one year – from October this year. Working formats were planned within its framework, which will be organized in the first six months of year 2018. The leading events are the Annual Forum and the meeting of the Ministers in October 2018. A key factor for coping with the ecological, social-economic and demographic challenges is also the regional tourism, this is why its development as a generator of economic growth will be in the focus of the Seventh Annual Forum of the Danube Strategy, which will be held on 18 and 19 October 2018 in Sofia. It is expected that the possibilities for attraction of public and private investments in tourism as well as the use of financial instruments will be widely discussed at it.

You may find more information about the Strategy on https://www.danube-region.eu/.