Danube Strategy To Help Riparian States Do Away With Regional Disparities – EC President

Barroso highlighted that the process of narrowing regional disparities must be sped up, adding the Danube Strategy is a political innovation which will help EU states in the region accelerate their integration process and use structural funds.

The EC president said the Danube Strategy creates a partnership between states that have common interests in the region and helps states that are not EU members establish closer relations with the EU.

The Danube Summit brings together 22 delegations comprising the heads of government of the 14 states on the Danube basin, European Commission officials, representatives of six riparian German and Austrian states, the city of Ulm, Germany, and Poland as observer.

The meeting is held in the Palace of Parliament, Bucharest, under the patronage of the President of Romania.

The European Union's Strategy for the Danube Region will focus on: connectivity (durable transport and energy networks), preservation of the environment and water resources, risk management, socio-economic development and the improvement of the system of government.

More than 10,000 projects concerning the Danube Region have been drawn up in Romania, requiring funding and prioritization. Some of the most important projects Romania hopes to carry out via the Strategy are the Danube-Bucharest canal, building two new bridges to Bulgaria, rebuilding port infrastructure (Romania has 12 river ports in need of modernization) and creating an international institute for the study of the Danube Delta's ecosystems.

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