Brussels, 18/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has asked the member states to approve the EU's strategy for the Danube region “before the June European Council”, and recommends that this strategy be implemented “as soon as possible”. During a debate, the EP by and large supported this strategy, which was proposed in December last year by the European Commission (EUROPE 10316).
In its adoption, in Strasbourg on Thursday 17 February, of the resolution on this strategy, the EP states that the success of the EU's strategy for the Danube region depends on the capacity, attitude and determination of the municipal actors to intervene on the regional employment markets, by presenting pilot initiatives to boost local demand for labour, to create conditions for intelligent and environmentally-friendly growth and to improve cooperation between the border regions of different states. It is convinced that this strategy will help to “mitigate adverse effects of climate change in the Danube regions”, taking account of the role and complex nature of the network of waterways (water supply, ecological aspects, transport infrastructure, irrigation and the agricultural dimensions, protected fauna and flora, etc).
The EP highlights three important levels of the development of infrastructures, in which the coordinated approach selected by the strategies of the Danube could bring about synergies: the multi-modal corridor along the full length of the Danube; - interfaces between the multi-modal corridor and the neighbouring member states; - cross-border bottlenecks on the national and regional TEN-T networks.
Lambert van Nistelrooij (EPP, Netherlands) and Oldrich Vlasák (ECR, Czech Republic) welcomed the fact that the strategy for the Danube region will be funded solely by available structural funds (around €1 billion over the period 2007-2013), with no additional allocation of resources, and without calling for new institutions or new legislation. Nonetheless, the Parliament stresses the need to provide the technical assistant needed to achieve the measures and projects implemented as part of this strategy and stresses that “non-absorbed financial resources could also be a source of financing for micro-regional projects”.
The MEPs also favour the reinforcement of projects and networks of projects in favour of vulnerable groups, particularly the Roma. (L.C./transl.fl)