Policy Development

An EU Industrial Policy Strategy: a Vision for 2030 – Council conclusions (adopted on 27/05/2019)

The EU Council conclusions on an EU Industrial Policy Strategy were adopted by the Council at its 3694th meeting held on 27 May 2019.

 

These conclusions echo recent calls from the European Council for an assertive long-term EU industrial policy strategy and should be seen as the Council’s contribution to the Commission’s task of presenting such a comprehensive strategy by the end of 2019.

 

Read the document here

Energy priorities: potentials for cross macro-regional collaboration (Interact report)

INTERACT has published a report on energy priorities and the potential for cross macro-regional collaboration after a reunion that took place in April 2019. The cross EU macro-regional strategies meeting on energy thematic was organised by Interact Programme in close cooperation with thematic coordinators of the EU Strategy for Alpine Region, the EU Strategy for the Danube Regionand EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (all Strategies together referred as MRS) and Danube Strategy Point.

 

The meeting was aiming to kick-off the exchange of experience and mutual learning across the MRS on cross-cutting issues of energy theme. Besides, the event addressed a question on how to better connect efforts undertaken by thematic coordinators of the MRS, the EU and national institutions in charge of delivering the EU Energy and Climate Policies.
Moreover, the participants were invited to elaborate on potential activities for further collaboration across the MRS.

 

The full report is available here.

Socio-Economic Assessment of the Danube Region completed

A socio-economic study has been commissioned by the coordinator of Priority Area (PA) 8, located within the Ministry of Finance and Economics Baden-Wuerttemberg. It is financed by the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission and co-financed by the Ministry.

 

One aim of the study is to analyse the current situation in the Danube Region with respect to prosperity, entrepreneurship/SMEs and cooperation activities to identify the obstacles which hinder the improvement of the situation. The full assessment is available for download on the site of PA 8 at this link.

 

 

 

Added value of macro-regional strategies (Interact Report)

INTERACT has published a report on the added value of macro-regional strategies from the perspective of projects and programmes. The report looks at what’s in it for them and why they should be interested in contributing to the implementation of macro-regional strategies. The focus is on the two older strategies, in the Baltic Sea and Danube Region. The report presents 31 macro-regional project examples in the fields of research and innovation, environment, transport and navigation.

The report is available here.

OECD publishes water quality governance case study by PA 4

Cooperation on the Danube is continuous at a number of levels, with data collection and information exchange, the establishment of early warning systems, monitoring of water quality and a uniform methodology on emissions data; the joint setting up of project proposals and assisting in financing: all of these actions have served to mitigate the adverse impact on ecosystems across the basin.

 

The Danube case study from a Hungarian perspective is a positive example of how nested legal and institutional frameworks can merge into effective cooperation activities under key agreed objectives in relation to water quality.

 

Read the full report here.

Read the PA 4 case study here.

 

Case Study: Water Quality Cooperation in the Danube Region

Case Study: Water Quality Cooperation in the Danube Region – A Hungarian Perspective

by Zsuzsanna Kocsis-Kupper, Danube Region Strategy, Priority Area Water Quality Coordination Team

Cooperation on the Danube is continuous at a number of levels, with data collection and information exchange, the establishment of early warning systems, monitoring of water quality and a uniform methodology on emissions data; the joint setting up of project proposals and assisting in financing: all of these actions have served to mitigate the adverse impact on ecosystems across the basin.

 

This Danube case study from a Hungarian perspective is a positive example of how nested legal and institutional frameworks can merge into effective cooperation activities under key agreed objectives in relation to water quality.

 

The need for clean drinking water, the threat of floods and the risk of water scarcity or industrial spills are everyday problems which influence the life of citizens living in the region. It is the intent of Hungary to strengthen regional cooperation further in this area and to play a central role in the framework of a constructive partnership in the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) and its Priority Areas for Water Quality (PA4)and Environmental Risks (PA5).

 

Read the full study here: Case Study: Water Quality Cooperation in the Danube Region – A Hungarian Perspective

Measuring the added-value of the EUSDR – Challanges and Opportunities

Discussion paper by Tobias Chilla & Franziska Sielker, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

This year marks the 5th anniversary of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) endorsed in 2011 by the European Council. The cooperation’s main goals are to better connect the region, protect the environment, build prosperity and strengthen institutional capacity and security. After five years of implementation, it is time to take stock of the current achievements and question the role the EUSDR for the Danube region. This process is closely related to the question which role macro-regional strategies can take over in the wider EU framework and how they can be better linked to Cohesion Policies and other territorial cooperation formats.

 

The paper was discussed in detail by EUSDR stakeholders at a participatory workshop in Brussels on 13 October 2016.

 

Read the consolidated version here.

Bericht „Governance im Bodenseeraum und anderen Grenzregionen“

Bericht „Governance im Bodenseeraum und anderen Grenzregionen“ von Thomas Radke, Internationale Bodensee Konferenz IBK

 

In diesem ht werden grundsätzliche Definitionen, Studien und Empfehlungen zur Governance von grenzüberschreitenden Regionen vorgestellt und daraus Schlussfolgerun-gen für die Analyse und Weiterentwicklung des Bodenseeraumes gezogen. Anschließend werden die genannten Grenzregionen im Hinblick auf ihre grundlegende Charakteristika, ihre Sekretariate/Geschäftsstellen, ihre Einbindung von BürgerInnen, ihre Kennzahlen und ihre strategischen Entwicklungen verglichen. Der Umbau der Kooperationsstrukturen am Oberr-hein und in der Großregion sowie der Umsetzungsstand des Zukunftsbildes 2020 der Groß-region aus dem Jahr 2003 werden dabei genauer betrachtet. Daran schließt eine Darstellung der Akteure und der Prozesse in der IBK und im Bodenseeraum an, die in konkreten Vor-schlägen zur Weiterentwicklung auf allen Ebenen des Handlungsraumes und zum Start in einen möglichen Prozess mündet. Das letzte Kapitel befasst sich mit einem Vergleich von grenzüberschreitenden Wissen-schafts-/Technologie- und Forschungsräumen:

  • Öresund (Skandinavien)
  • Top Technology Region / Eindhoven – Leuven – Aachen Triangle (TTR-ELAt)
  • Universität der Großregion
  • Trinationale Metropolregion Oberrhein
  • Centrope
Download document here.

DSRN study: EUSDR Challenges and Chances 2014-2020

 

The EU Strategy for the Danube Region introduced in 2011 served as an important driver for the development of the ETC programmes 2014-2020. The proceedings at hand result from a conference in 2013 and a series of further smaller workshops organised by the Danube Strategy Research Network (DSRN) between 2012 and 2015. The papers reflect on the EUSDR and its challenges and opportunities through a number of different perspectives.

 

The first series of papers reflect on the newly developing macro-regional strategies as a new element of the multi-level governance system of the EU. Others focus on the influence and impact on Europeanization and European integration, as well as on the added value and challenges through macro-regional cooperation. The second part presents experiences within different Danube countries analysed from different perspectives, e.g. EU funding implementation, bottom-up approaches as well as institutional relations. The final part discusses the scientific support. The challenges and opportunities identified at the conference for the EUSDR’s future are manifold and vary within the different EUSDR regions considerably, more so due to the diversity within the different Priority Areas. The two main challenges that can be extracted from the papers and the discussions at the conference are, first, the different focuses of national and European discussions, and second, the different expectations of stakeholders towards the relevant processes. Whereas the European discussion focuses on governance, alignment of funding etc., the conference has shown the strong dependency of EUSDR developments on national dynamics.

 

This publication is an output of the „Conference on the EU Strategy for the Danube Region: Challenges and Chances 2014 – 2020“. The event was organised by the Danube Strategy Research Network and its partners in Brussels in November 2013.

 

Please download the publication at this link.