State Secretary Andrej Plenković participated in European Commission’s press panel on Danube Region as part of 8th Open Days: European Week of Regions and Cities, Brussels

State Secretary Plenković talked about Croatia’s participation in elaborating the Danube Strategy, with the aim of highlighting Croatia’s Danube dimension, as well as realizing concrete projects and cooperation with other partners

The panel also saw the participation of Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn, Slovak Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Post and Telecommunications Jan Figel, Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Lilyana Pavlova, the Hungarian Government’s Commissioner for the Danube Strategy Etelka Barsi-Pataky, Bavarian State Minister for Federal and European Affairs Emilia Müller, and Baden-Württenberg Minister for European Affairs Wolfgang Reinhart.

State Secretary Plenković talked about Croatia’s participation in elaborating the Danube Strategy, with the aim of highlighting Croatia’s Danube dimension, as well as realizing concrete projects and cooperation with other partners. He emphasized the importance of the Danube Strategy for a fuller inclusion of the Vukovarsko-srijemska and Osječko-baranjska counties in various forms of international and cross-border cooperation, in view of the post-war reconstruction of Croatia’s Danube region, as well as its economic and social development. Pointing out that Croatia was a part of the Central European cultural circle, he said that the relevant Croatian bodies drawing up the Action Plan had put forward projects concerning transport, environmental protection, energy, entrepreneurship, culture, tourism, and civil society.

By the end of the year, the European Commission is to present the draft of the Strategy and the Action Plan, while their adoption is expected at the European Council in June 2011, towards the end of Hungary’s EU presidency, when Croatia expects to close its accession negotiations.

In light of the fact that upon the closing of the negotiations, the European Parliament would have to ratify the Treaty of Accession, State Secretary Plenković also met with its Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gabriele Albertini, with whom he discussed the role and political support of the European Parliament, as well as the EU enlargement strategy.

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