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Romania will take over, in partnership with Austria, the Secretariat of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR)/Danube Strategy Point for a three-year period, a release of the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) sent to AGERPRES on Thursday informs.
According to the quoted source, Romania obtained on Wednesday, at the common meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Danube Transnational Programme and national coordinators of the EUSDR member states, that was held in Split, Croatia, the take-over and ensuring, in partnership with Austria, the SUERD Secretariat / Danube Strategy Point.
The MAE mentions that the decision regarding the approval of the joint Romanian-Austrian project for re-establishing the EUSDR Secretariat passed through consensus and the initiative of lodging our country's bid belonged to the Inter-ministerial Working Group coordinated by the Foreign Affairs Ministry through the minister-delegate for European Affairs and the Regional Development and Public Administration Ministry, a body that has the role of contributing to the drafting of national standpoints and strategic planning documents related to the EUSDR.
Romania and Austria - co-initiator states of the EUSDR - want to strengthen cooperation under the aegis of this macro-strategy, this being the reason for agreeing this partnership in order to jointly host the EUSDR Secretariat for a three-year period, the MAE underscored.
The structure will have two offices, in Bucharest and Vienna, housed by the Development Ministry, and the Vienna City Hall, respectively, the quoted source mentions.
The MAE underscored that ensuring the secretariat is also very important in the light of Romania taking over the EUSDR Presidency as of 1 November 2018 for a period of one year, representing a goal proposed in view of exercising this mandate.
Moreover, making the EUSDR Secretariat operational, with the support of the Danube Transnational Programme and the European Commission, will enable partnerships to be strengthened between all actors involved in implementing the strategy. The budget proposed for this project is approximately 3.9 million euros and Romania benefits from 1.4 million euro, the MAE informs.
The EUSDR will grant its support to the future presidencies in the process of reviewing and, subsequently, implementing the Action Plan of the Strategy. The EUSDR Secretariat will also contribute to the promotion by the Romanian Presidency of the EUSDR objectives, such as the implementation of joint strategic projects between member states and the pursuit of achieving the proposed objectives in order to capitalize on the potential of the Danube, ensuring its economic development and territorial cohesion in this macro-region, the quoted source added.
Fourteen states participate in the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region, namely nine member states of the European Union (Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany - as a Federal State and through Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria lands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary), and five third countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine), the MAE mentions.
