First meeting of the interdepartmental work-group on the Danube (Dunav) European Union strategy

The first meeting of the interdepartmental work-group of working out the “Position on the Danube (Dunav) European Union Strategy” was held at the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Work.

The Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Work Liliyana Pavlova presented information about the First work meeting of the national coordinators. The main subject was the elaboration of the EU Strategy for development of the Danube (Dunav) area. It took place in Brussels. MRRB was pronounced to be responsible for the implementation and development of the Strategy and the Minister of regional development and public work for National coordinator. It was done with a decision of the Council of Ministers.

Development strategy for progress of the Danube (Dunav) area is a brand new initiative of the European commission and it follows methods that had already been approved, with the strategy of the Baltic region, by the European Council. It aims to create macro-regional programs and to implement specific projects, relevant to the development of the Danube (Dunav) countries and the entire European Union by common strategic planning of a large region.

The European Commission defined three potential areas for developing the strategy:
-Connection- access and connections on and to Danube (Dunav) River, transportation and power engineering
-Environment- water quality, bio variety, prevention and risk management
-“Unlock” of the potential- economic development, education, culture, tourism

The strategy for development of the Danube (Dunav) area is expected to be approved in September-December and to be accepted in the beginning of 2011 by the European Council during the Hungarian chairmanship.
At the time of the Strategy’s preparation, meetings and discussions will be organized on various priority areas. One of them will be arranged in May 2010 by MRRB along with the city of Ruse and Giurgiu.

It is expected that the department ministries, The Association of the Danube (Dunav) Municipalities, the National association of Bulgarian municipalities, the Regional administrations in the South-Western and Northern Central Region  will present projects, along with information about their readiness, adequate to the priority areas. It was noted that the projects offered must be related to the development of the Danube (Dunav) region as a whole.

The deadline for presenting the projects is until 12th January 2010.