mr president the danube strategy must turn into a continuing process and into a tool for coordination among partners facing similar challenges
it has to improve the implementation of common targets and to make an impact clearly felt by our citizens along this important european artery which as a colleague pointed out has also been heavily hit by the present crisis
it is of crucial importance that the danube strategy be based on a bottom-up approach
this partnership should be followed up in the future development of cohesion policy programming documents
the active participation of local and regional stakeholders is a guarantee that they recognise as their priorities the actions and projects included in the strategy
by this i mean real ownership of the process
the willingness of the danube regions to allocate funds from their own programmes to common projects is a precondition for the successful accomplishment of their goals but they should also strengthen the coordination of the existing transborder programmes
that is the only way for the strategy to become a good example of interregional cooperation
