Miroslav Veskovic
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EU Danube Strategy Priority Area 7 Coordinator

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Sustainable development of the Danube region through joint cooperation and involvement of all countries in the Danube region.
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To fully use already existing resources, and to develop the Danube Region without new institutions, new legislations and new funds.

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The 115 million people living in the Danube Region will benefit from:
◦ faster transport by road and rail
◦ cleaner transport by improving the navigability of rivers
◦ cheaper and more secure energy thanks to better connections and alternative sources
◦ a better environment with cleaner water, protected biodiversity, and cross-border flood prevention
◦ a prosperous region, through working together on the economy, education, social inclusion, and research and innovation
◦ attractive tourist and cultural destinations, developed and marketed jointly
◦ a safer, well-governed region, thanks to better cooperation and coordination of government and non-governmental organisations

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The ministers of the 27 EU Member States, have on April 13 in Luxembourg, endorsed the EU Strategy for the Danube Region adopted by the European Commission last
December ( IP/10/1687 ). Preparations for implementation of the Strategy are already underway. Around 200 priority actions will contribute to developing the area's huge economic potential and improving environmental conditions in the region.

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24 June 2011 (planned): Official endorsement of the EUSDR by the European Council and launch of the implementation phase.

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Each Priority Area has to be considered with other policy fields.
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Therefore, for the implementation of each
Priority Area, it is important that there is involvement of bodies and institutions representing other policy fields.

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A sustainable framework for cooperation
Implementation
Funding
Reporting and evaluation
No new EU funds, no new EU legislation, no new EU Structures

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The coordination of each Priority Area–PA is the task of Member States (together with non
Member States), in consultation with the
Commission, and relevant EU agencies and regional bodies.

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Coordination of each Priority Area is allocated to a Priority Area Coordinators -PAC.
These are at the heart of making the Strategy operational, and bear a central responsibility for its success.
They work on its implementation, in close contact with the
Commission, with all stakeholders involved, especially other countries, but also Regional and Local Authorities, Inter-Governmental and Non-Governmental Bodies.

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‘Priority Area Coordinators ’, should demonstrate
Danube wide commitment, acceptance and expertise, ensure implementation (e.g.
by agreeing on planning, with targets, indicators and timetables, and by ensuring wide contacts between project promoters, programmes and funding sources, providing technical assistance and advice). This work will be trans-national, inter-sectoral and inter-institutional.

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C) BUILDING PROSPERITY IN THE DANUB REGION
7) TO DEVELOP THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY THROUGH
RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
Priority Area Coordinators:
Republic of Serbia and Republic of Slovakia
A society's ability to create and exploit knowledge is a key factor for progress and growth. A society based on knowledge needs competitive research and education infrastructure, innovation supporting and facilitating institutions, and high performing information and communication technologies. These framework conditions differ remarkably throughout the Danube Region but remain, overall, below the level of EU27. Here, the European Social Fund (ESF ) could be more widely used to support actions and projects.

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Targets as examples could be:
To invest 3% of GDP in Research and
Development by 2020;
Broadband access for all EU citizens in the
Region by 2013;
Increase the number of patents obtained in the Region by 50%;
Increase the share of the EU population aged
30-34 with tertiary or equivalent education to
40% by 2020 .

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By 2020, all citizens of the Region should enjoy better prospects of higher education, employment and prosperity in their own home area. The Strategy should make this a truly 21st century region, secure and confident, and one of the most attractive in
Europe.

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The Region encompasses the extremes of the EU in economic and social terms. From its most competitive to its poorest regions, from the most highly skilled to the least educated, and from the highest to the lowest standard of living, the differences are striking. The Strategy reinforces
Europe 2020, offering the opportunity to match the capital-rich with the labor-rich, and the technologically-advanced with the waiting markets, in particular through expanding the knowledge society and with a determined approach to inclusion. Marginalised communities
(especially Roma, the majority of whom live in the
Region) in particular should benefit.

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One third of EU's population at risk of poverty, many from marginalised groups, live in the area. Roma communities, 80% of whom live in the Region, suffer especially from social and economic exclusion, spatial segregation and sub-standard living conditions. Efforts to escape these have EUwide effects, but the causes must be addressed first in the Region.

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Building Prosperity
When it comes to prosperity, the Danube is a region of contradictions.
Some areas are rich in capital but have a small workforce, while in others unemployment is high.
Including everyone in training opportunities and matching workers to jobs across the Region is a basic principle for growth.
Better connections between business and research will help spread innovation and jobs. Finally, everyone must benefit from the push to prosperity
The Strategy outlines three priorities which will reduce the divide:
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Develop the knowledge society through research, education and
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information technologies;
Support business competitivity;
Invest in people and skills.

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Education & skills
Investment in people is needed so that the Region can sustainably progress and grow, prioritising knowledge and inclusion. Building on the success of parts of the Region will open access to further education, and modernise training and social support.
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Research & Innovation
Targeted support for research infrastructure will stimulate excellence and deepen networking between knowledge providers, companies and policy-makers. The region must use national and regional funds better, and benefit fully from the European Research Area. Existing bilateral agreements should lead to multilateral coordination. Developing regions downstream can benefit from the leading - indeed worldclass - innovative regions upstream.

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Enterprises
Top-performing regions in Europe can be found in the area.
Others lag a long way behind. They need to benefit, through better connections between innovation and business supporting institutions. Clusters and links between centres of excellence, binding them into existing education and research networks, will extend the competitiveness of upstream enterprises to the whole region.
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Employment market
Higher levels of employment are crucial. People need opportunities close to where they live. They also need mobility. The Region needs to offer a future to the brightest and most enterprising, through stronger cooperation regarding policies, measures and information exchange.

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“To cooperate in implementing the flagship initiative “Innovation Union of the Europe
2020 Strategy” in the Danube Region countries”
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“To coordinate better national, regional and
EU funds to stimulate excellence in research and development, in research areas specific for the Danube Region”.

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“To strengthen the capacities of research infrastructure”.
“To strengthen cooperation among universities and research facilities and to upgrade research and education outcomes by focusing on unique selling points”.
“To develop and implement strategies to improve the provision and uptake of
Information and Communication
Technologies in the Danube Region”.

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“To draw up internet strategies”.
“To use e-content and e-services to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public and private services”.
“To stimulate the emergence of innovative ideas for products and services and their wide validation in the field of the Information
Society, using the concept of Living Labs”.

What we can learn from EU Baltic Sea Region
Strategy?

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The Lab Group. In order to support the programmes in identifying their role in the Strategy implementation and define operational responsibilities, management challenges and potentials, the
INTERACT Programme established the Baltic Sea Strategy Laboratory
Group in January 2009. The Laboratory Group is coordinated by
INTERACT Point Turku.
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The Baltic Sea Strategy Laboratory Group is an informal working group consisting mainly of program practitioners from the Member
States involved. The group is set up to seek operative solutions to identified points that will imply consequences on practical program management. The group met 6 times during 2009 and organised a major conference in Riga where both representatives from the
Managing Authorities and the Priority Area Coordinators participated to discuss good practice in aligning funding to the Strategy.
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The Network on Funding and Financing the EU Strategy for the Baltic
Sea Region initiated by the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance is also contributing to the work on developing new solutions on how to fund the priorities in the EUSBSR.

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Strategic Development 2010-2011
& Implementation 2012-2016
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The objective of BONUS-169 is to integrate
Baltic Sea System research into a durable interdisciplinary, well-integrated and focused multinational programme to support the region’s sustainable development.
It will deal with the continuum of the sea and the coast and the interdependencies with the catchment.

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Alignment of funds
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Financial engineering

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Expenditures budgeted by the Structural Funds [1] in 2007-2013 [2]
Research, innovation, entrepreneurship
Information Society
Human capital
Inclusion
EUR 13.9 b
EUR 3.6 b
EUR 13.0 b
EUR 7.6 b
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1] European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) including cross-border cooperation, Cohesion Fund and European Social Fund for the Member
States. The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance and the European
Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) are not included.
[2] However, the use of Structural Funds depends on the specific operational programmes, developed and agreed upon at the beginning of the
2007-2013 programming period in close collaboration between the
European Commission and the respective Member States/ Regions. These should offer opportunities for funding for specific actions/ projects, depending on the priorities and measurements/ actions identified in the respective operational programmes.

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Other EU programmes contribute to this pillar C PA7, in particular: the 7th Research Framework Programme, the
Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) National,
Cross-border Cooperation and Multi-beneficiary country programmes, several programmes of the European
Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) (such as the Regional programmes or the Cross-border Cooperation
Programmes), the European Agriculture Fund for Rural
Development (EAFRD), the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) and the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme. National, regional and local policies also finance important projects. In addition, significant financing is already provided to a large number of projects via lending and/ or co-financing from various International and Bilateral Finance Institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Bank, the
Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) or other lenders.

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More recently, for the countries of the
Western Balkans, additional efforts have been made to better coordinate and blend instruments for grants and loans via the
Western Balkans Investment Framework
(WBIF).
The Western Balkan Investment Framework
(WBIF) is a blending instrument for grants and loans for candidate countries and potential candidates.

In addition to project funding, the question of the availability of technical assistance money for covering running costs involved with the Strategy on the parts of Priority Area
Coordinators and Flagship Project Leaders (e.g. hiring additional coordinators, project preparation costs, travel and meeting costs) should be widely discussed during the early implementation phase and is likely to gain in importance as
Strategy-related activities grow in scope. A questionnaire to
PACs on Priority Area needs was developed by DG Regional
Policy. The results show that technical assistance costs pose a challenge to many PAs and FPs and may reduce the amount of activities carried out.
The Commission is therefore investigating various options to solving this challenge, including the possibility of creating a Trust Fund for the
Strategy in cooperation with the EIB, and will raise the issue in a forthcoming meetings with the NCPs.

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As with all of its funding programmes, Brussels has proposed an administrative structure for the new Danube region strategy in the form of a lean technical secretariat supplemented by regional contact centres.
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With the existing structures of National Contact Points,
Priority Area Coordination and Flagship Projects, the operational programmes can offer solutions enabling the effective use of available funds that at the same time can strengthen the existing strategic setup of each programme.

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The focus of the two coordinators, Slovakia and Serbia, during the implementation phase should be on developing the right structures for the cooperation.
At bilateral meetings, the PACs should agree on a common approach for the PA, on the division of work and responsibilities, as well as on next steps.

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Establishing the network of National Contact
Points-NCP
List of contact persons for all MS for the priority area
Establish personal contacts with Interact concerning financing possibilities.
Setting up the Priority 7 web portal
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Organise the kick off meeting
Discus on the need for other than the already suggested flagships with stakeholders on a national level.
Initiate search for stakeholders in member states.

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Centers of excellence
Smart specialisation

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Bringing together people from businesses, national and regional governments and academics every year, learning from and sharing good ideas with the EU Strategy for the Baltic Region.

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The PA 7 should have its kick-off meeting as soon as possible. The main aim of the meeting should be to clarify the role of the
Priority Area Coordinators (PACs) and
Flagship Project Leaders in implementation of the EUSDR and discuss the formula of future cooperation in the PA 7.

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The main issues are the discussion and sharing experiences about flagship status (bottlenecks of manning, design and implementation phase, need for financial support both for technical assistance and projects’ implementation etc.).
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Throughout the implementation phase, the PAC should carry out a thorough re-examination of the Flagship Projects.
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In addition to continuously monitoring the progress of the Flagship Projects, the next steps for the PACs will involve the establishment of links to other Priority Areas

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The next step is to launch the regional network of universities, research institutes and companies.
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Smart specialisation

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The development of knowledge-intensive products and services is a crucial factor if companies are to be competitive in the global market. At policy level, countries, and particularly regions, must develop efficient innovation systems. This is the key challenge that will be addressed by the
Coordinators for this Area.

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INTERACT
DRC
ICA CASEE
BYHOST
KNOWLWDGE CLASTER
…..

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What does INTERACT do?
They provide practical support, training and advice to European Territorial cooperation programmes on management techniques, financial issues,
European regulations, communication, strategic orientation and policy development.
They also offer a unique forum for European Territorial Cooperation stakeholders by supporting institutional and thematic networks on topics of common interest.
They offer regular advertised services for all programmes, but they can also be contacted at any time by any programme to provide tailor-made services meeting specific programme needs.
Their expertise includes:
Programme and financial management
Project management and support
Capitalisation for cooperation programmes and projects
Strategic programme planning
Audit and control
Monitoring and evaluation
Communications

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INTERACT, based on its mandate by the EU Member
States and the Commission, is offering dedicated support to cooperation programmes involved in the preparation and implementation of EU Macro-
Regional Strategies.
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INTERACT Point Vienna is contact point for ETC programmes within the Danube Region Strategy and coordinates the Danube LabGroup, whose functioning and composition are comparable to those of the
Baltic Sea LabGroup.

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INTERACT Point Vienna is responsible for delivering
INTERACT services for the south-eastern part of the European
Union. It is hosted by the City of Vienna, Austria.
INTERACT Point Vienna develops and offers services addressed to the needs of European Territorial Cooperation programmes, with a specific focus on new Member States,
Accession and Pre-Accession Countries.
IP Vienna is the first contact point for 28 cross-border programmes located in this area, covering 11 Member States,
7 candidate and pre-candidate countries (so-called IPA countries), as well as 2 associated countries (Switzerland and
Liechtenstein).

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The regional approach of the INTERACT II Programme is ensured through the four INTERACT Points, while a common and shared approach on themes and work packages is guaranteed by coordination undertaken by the INTERACT
Secretariat.
Services
In addition, the IS performs certain horizontal tasks by leading the efforts of the programme in communications, knowledge management and quality assurance. It is also responsible for managing the relationships with other network programmes and National Contact Persons, as well as undertaking the Technical Assistance functions.
Contact us
INTERACT Programme Secretariat
Sabinovská 16
820 05 Bratislava 25
Slovak Republic
+ 421 2 48264 310 interact@interact-eu.net

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In 2011,
is setting up a "Danube Labgroup", a think tank that will reflect on the effects and concerns, new challenges and potentialities, of the macroregional strategy for day-to-day management of different operational programmes.

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The University network consisted of
52 higher education institutions from 13 countries in the Danube
Region.
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Can be used:
To strengthen cooperation among universities and research facilities and to upgrade research and education outcomes by focusing on unique selling points.

The “ICA Regional Network for Central and South Eastern
Europe”, in short CASEE, is a network of Central and South
Eastern European Higher Education Institutions relating to the
Life Science disciplines (agriculture, food, biotechnology, natural resources, rural development and the environment).

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The ‘Bavarian Academic Center for Central, Eastern and
Southeastern Europe’ (BAYHOST) coordinates academic relations with Eastern Europe and supports academic exchanges between students and scientists. Bavaria offers one-year scholarships to graduates from Eastern Europe.
There are also grants for summer language courses all across the same area and for German courses at Bavarian universities and universities of applied sciences. BAYHOST hosts exchange forums to help the business sector benefit from numerous academic contacts in Eastern Europe.

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The Strategy provides a sustainable framework for policy integration and coherent development of the
Danube Region. It sets out priority actions to make it an EU region for the 21st century. It must be accompanied by sufficient information and publicity to ensure its objectives are widely known.
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The Region needs results. After decades of division and often conflict, the region will be a better place for its people and a showcase and gate to the world.

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