Regional and urban policy

EU STRATEGY FOR THE DANUBE REGION

The EU Strategy for the Danube Region

(EUSDR) is the second EU macro-regional

strategy adopted by the European Com-

mission in 2010 and endorsed by the European

Council in 2011.

The Strategy brings together 14 countries

along the Danube river, and covers an area which

is home to 112 million people, or one-fifth

of the EU’s population.

9 EU Member States: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech

Republic, Croatia, Germany (Baden-Württemberg,

Bavaria), Hungary, Slovak Republic, Slovenia,

and Romania.

5 non-EU countries: Bosnia and Herzegovi-

na, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, and Ukraine

(Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsy and

Zakarpatya).

The Strategy focuses on four pillars, and within each pillar, concrete cooperation actions specify priority areas:

CONNECTING THE REGION:■ Improve mobility and transport connections■ Encourage more sustainable energy■ Promote culture and tourism

PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT:■ Restore and maintain water quality■ Manage environmental risks■ Preserve biodiversity, landscapes and the air and soil quality

BUILDING PROSPERITY:■ Develop the Knowledge Society■ Support the competitiveness of enterprises■ Invest in people and skills

STRENGTHENING THE REGION:■ Step up institutional capacity and cooperation■ Work together to promote security and tackle organised

and serious crime

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EU Strategy for the Danube Region

© EuroGeographics Association for the administrative boundaries (NUTS regions)

0 200 Km

DID YOU KNOW?■ The Danube (2860 km) is the world’s most inter national

river, crossing through 10 countries and extending into 19 countries, and the biggest share of the Danube river’s basin belongs to Romania (approx. 29 %).

■ The Danube Delta is the largest European natural wetland and reed bed, and also home to the largest colony of peli-cans outside Africa (2500 breeding pairs of pelicans arrive every spring in the Danube Delta).1

■ The Danube region includes the most successful but also some of the poorest regions in the EU, the wealthiest region’s GDP per capita in 2015 being around six times higher than that of the poorest. The gap is even bigger if compared with non-EU countries.2

1) Source: WWF Global, UNESCO2) Source: Eurostat:

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/news/themes-in-the-spotlight/regional-gdp

THE RESULTS ACHIEVED SO FAR Six years of implementation of the EUSDR has shown that the Strategy is bearing fruit. Thanks to the Strategy, several new important macro-regional projects have either started or been further developed (e.g. in the fields of navigability and climate change). By bringing together different stakeholders from different levels, the EUSDR has contributed to an im-proved culture of cooperation and helped to develop a multi-cultural dialogue. It has also helped to strengthen coordination and develop synergies between policies and institutions at the national level, and supported intensified thematic cooperation with the non-EU countries, and between existing international organisations in the region.

SOME CONCRETE EXAMPLES INCLUDE:

■ Coordinated risk management through projects like SEERISK is significantly reducing the risk of damage by floods;

■ Bottlenecks in the Danube’s navigability are being removed and security of its navigation improved though projects such as FAIRWAY and DARIF – Danube River Forum;

■ Cultural dialogue and the active participation of young people in civil society in the Danube region are being encouraged by projects like Empowering Young People – Connecting Europe.

MORE INFORMATIONhttps://www.danube-region.eu/

Danube Region Strategy: Success Stories: http://europa.eu/!JM99Nm

@RegioInterreg, @EU_Regional

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2017 © European Union, 2017Reuse is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Printed by the Publications Office in Luxembourg

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ISBN 978-92-79-74490-7 ISBN 978-92-79-74482-2

doi:10.2776/179196 doi:10.2776/56371

KN-06-17-230-EN-C KN-06-17-230-EN-N