The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration (MDRAP), Priority Area 10 – “Institutional Capacity and Cooperation Development” of the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), Danube Civil Society Forum and Agapedia Foundation Romania, with the support of the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg (Germany), have organised today, 26 June 2019, the 6th “Danube Participation Day” at the Palace of Parliament, in Bucharest.
The meeting, organised in Romania for the first time, is one of the thematic meetings organised in the context of the Romanian presidency of the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region, in the margins of the 8th EUSDR Annual Forum, which is one of the important events on the agenda of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The event was attended by 200 representatives of the civil society, of local, regional and central public authorities, and of the academia from the 14 countries participating in EUSDR, and was intended for the exchange of opinions and perceptions, the presentation of examples of good practice in participatory governance and project implementation, as well as the promotion of new opportunities to renew the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region.
MDRAP Secretary of State Virgil-Alin Chirilă opened the meeting by underscoring the need to continue consultations with all relevant stakeholders aiming to advance proposals for the adjustment of EUSDR priority areas to the main topics on the European Agenda: “The six months overlap of the Romanian presidency of the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region and of the European Union Council has given us the adequate framework for the active promotion at European level, of macro-regional strategies with a particular focus on territorial, economic and social cohesion, as well as for the reduction of development disparities among the states of the Danube basin.”
Also in the margins of the EUSDR, the 18th Meeting of the Steering Board of the Priority Area 3 of the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region – “Culture, Tourism and People to People” was held today at the MDRAP.
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The European Union Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) is one of the four macro-regional strategies of the European Union, initiated and successfully promoted by Romania and Austria and endorsed by the European Council in 2011.
14 countries are part of the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region: nine member states of the European Union (Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechia, Croatia, Germany – as a federal state and through the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary) and five third-party countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Moldova and Ukraine).
The Strategy, which is divided into 11 priority areas, has four main objectives: Connect the region, – Protecting the environment, – Building prosperity, – Strenghtening the region.
For Romania, MDRAP provides the coordination of Priority Area 3 – “Culture, Tourism and People to People”. Romania coordinates this area jointly with Bulgaria. Additionally, MDRAP is a contact point for Romania for Priority Area 10 – “Institutional Capacity and Cooperation”, coordinated by Austria and Slovenia.