One year ago the European Commission adopted the EU Strategy for the Danube Region.

Directorate-General for Regional Policy has sent a letter to all Managing Authorities at the end of November to encourage them actively to finance projects from the Action Plan. Further discussions between the European Commission and the programmes will take place during Spring 2012.

This will be the occasion for National Contact Points and Priority Area Coordinators to discuss all issues concerning progress in their Priority Area, funding, governance and communication, but most of all exchange about their achievements and difficulties. We need all together a common understanding of what has been done and what lies ahead.

We encourage you to use the different linguistic versions of the Action Plan on the Inforegio website.

Please follow the link: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/cooperate/danube/documents_en.cfm#1

The High Level Group for the EU Strategy for the Danube Region and the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region met in parallel, to discuss/resolve common issues and exchange experiences.

Overall, the countries of the Danube Region had the opportunity to understand the Baltic approach (and vice versa). Perhaps we can learn from each other?

This is being paid to the Danube Priority Area Coordinators in the coming weeks. The European Parliament allocated EUR 3.5 Mio earmarked to support the daily work of the Coordinators, which means EUR 200.000 for each Priority Area. These resources will help hire permanent staff and provide administrative support.  

In particular, National and EU Policies could benefit from the potential of the macro-regional perspective. This approach is now included in the Cohesion Policy's draft Regulations for 2014-2020.

In addition, a very swift reaction has been shown by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (RTD) which opened a call (now closed) on "Innovative fleet for efficient logistics chain", specifically oriented to transport research projects in the Danube Region.

Research*eu focus magazine n°11 is a joint publication by CORDIS with the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation and the Directorate-General for Regional Policy.

The publication presents the Danube Strategy and success stories in transport, environment, energy and socio-economic research, as well as Research, Technological Development and Innovation (RTDI) on the Danube.

You can consult the publication by following the link:

ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/news/research-eu/docs/focus11_en.pdf

Danube Watch is the official magazine of ICPDR, the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River. Danube Watch enhances regional cooperation and information sharing on sustainable water management and environmental protection in the Danube River Basin. 

The Danube Team at Directorate-General for Regional Policy sends everyone Season's Greetings and wishes you all a Happy New Year!

We would like to thank you for your good cooperation in starting the implementation of the EUSDR in 2011, and we are looking forward to continuing the work in 2012!