EU leaders and ministers will meet on Thursday in Budapest to discuss economic and environmental developments for the Danube region.
The conference is part of Brussels’ drive for an “EU Strategy for the Danube Region,” conceived last year by the European Council and due to be adopted in March 2011, under Hungary’s presidency of the bloc.
Fourteen countries are taking part in this strategy, not only Danube countries like Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, but also neighbouring EU states like Czech Republic and Slovenia.
Participating states from outside the EU include Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Montenegro, Moldova and Ukraine.
“Inequalities within the Danube region are very big,” the strategy’s Hungarian coordinator Peter Szalo, told national news agency MTI.
“We need stronger cohesion to turn the region into a unified European region,” he added.
The EU delegation will be led by EU regional policy commissioner Johannes Hahn, who will be joined by the prime ministers of Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Moldova and Romania, and Austria’s chancellor.
Economy, development and environment ministers from the other participating states, as well as experts and representatives from the European Investment Bank and the European Commission are also expected at the two-day summit.
