Global links for regional cooperation

The Danube River and its abundant natural resources shape the lives of the 81 million people living in the basin. We rely on the Danube and its tributaries for energy, transport, agriculture, industry and, of course, drinking water. Such diverse uses of a river call for inter-sectoral approaches in managing it – and macro-regional strategies can help to facilitate this.

The EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) acknowledges these shared challenges brought about by geographic circumstances. By using a macro-regional framework, the strategy produces more effective cross-border coordination in building sustainable development and protecting the natural resources on which we all depend.

One strategy for all Danube countries. The EUSDR, approved by the European Council in 2011, links the efforts of 14 Danube countries under four main pillars – connecting the region, protecting the environment, building prosperity and strengthening the region – and further divided into eleven individual priority areas.

“For water issues, the macroregional level makes the most sense to make changes and find real solutions,” says Florian Ballnus, Coordinator of Priority Area 6 (Preserve Biodiversity, Landscapes and the Quality of Air and Soils) for the Danube Strategy. “Water is a medium which obviously knows no borders, and whether it’s a sea, a lake or a river, water perfectly illustrates the need to cooperate transnationally and across borders,” says Ballnus.

Progress on the strategy. Two years into the strategy and progress can already be seen. The Danube Strategy Implementation Report published this spring highlighted some of the advancement made towards the various priority areas, for example the Danube Sturgeon Task Force, created to facilitate projects and measures to secure viable populations of this important fish.

Furthermore, success in the strategy depends on the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders to drive the implementation forward. The Second Annual Forum of the EUSDR was held in Bucharest in October 2013 with the focus ‘Danube region – stronger together, stronger in the world’. The forum encouraged debate on how the strategy is helping to tackle joint challenges.

For the Danube, this cooperation crosses issues as well as national borders. “The environmental Priority Areas [Priority Areas 4, 5 and 6] have cooperated closely from the beginning on,” says Ballnus. “But there are so many cross-cutting issues, and now we see strong cooperation between other priority areas, which came about naturally from the Priority Area Coordinators themselves.”

The Baltic Sea as a role model. The macro-regional approach was pioneered by the Baltic Sea Region. Approved by the European Council in 2009, the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) provides an integrated framework to improve the environmental condition of the sea, bottlenecks in transport and energy interconnections as well as to facilitate the development of competitive markets and common networks for research and innovation.

The Baltic Sea region has a long history of cooperation, from the Nordic Council founded in the 1950s, the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission founded in the 1970s and the Council of the Baltic Sea States founded 20 years ago. However, it’s the day-to-day cooperation that is making the most progress towards the EUSBSR’s goals.

“Environmental problems cannot be solved by one nation alone, and that is true for the Baltic Sea Region and is certainly true for the Danube Region as well,” says Erja Tikka, Finland’s Baltic Sea Ambassador, “so international cooperation is really needed.”

Inspiring other macro-regions. While coordinating actions across policy areas can produce better results than individual actions, macro-regional strategies have even larger benefits. Resolving issues in a relatively smaller region can clear the way for better cohesion at the level of the European Union. Therefore, based on the success of the Danube and Baltic Sea Strategies, the EU will develop strategies for other macro-regions – next for the Adriatic and Ionian Region.

The EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region will promote sustainable economic and social prosperity through growth and job creation by approving its attractiveness, competitiveness and connectivity while at the same time preserving the environment and ensuring healthy and balanced marine and coastal ecosystems. A public consultation period on the strategy is currently under way, and the final strategy is expected by the end of 2014.

“The Adriatic and the Ionian Seas are a major maritime and marine area in Europe, with precious ideas, experience and know-how,” said Maria Damanaki European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in a speech delivered at the debate called ‘Adriatic-Ionian Macro-region: Transnational, Crossborders and Interregional actions paving the way ahead’ in Brussels in October 2012. “The true advantage of a regional strategy: it enables all levels and all countries to work together and on equal footing.”

Kirstie Shepherd is a freelance journalist living in Vienna and has called the Danube River Basin home since 2000.