15TH PA10 STEERING GROUP MEETING IN PRAGUE, CZ
One of the most important tasks of the priority area coordinators is to guide activities of the representatives of 14 Danube countries into similar direction. The Steering Group (SG) should meet at least twice a year and this week (28-29 November) the 15th SG meeting of PA10 in Prague, Czech Republic was organized.
In summer idea of back-to-back meeting with priority area (PA) 11 ‘security’ was brought up as topics of PA10 and PA11 are joined under the pillar 4 of the Danube Transnational Programme. With joint meeting organizers wanted to attract all SG members as well as experts that are working on the fields related to the Danube Region in general. We have therefore invited newly established Danube Strategy Point (DSP), Danube Transnational Programme (DTP) and Romanian representatives, as Romania is chairing the Presidency of the EU Strategy for Danube Region. Long list of interesting topics attracted around 50 people from all 14 Danube countries that gathered at Ministry of Interior of Czech Republic. They were firstly all greeted by Slovene Ambassador to the Czech Republic, H.E. Dr Leon Marc. Discussion than touched upon the upcoming call for proposals from the DTP, plans and activities of the Danube Strategy Point and priorities of the presidency that will at the end of June 2019 organize traditional annual forum in Bucharest. Towards the end of discussions, possible joint initiatives between PA10 and PA11 were screened, from joint forces on project to policy level.
The following day representatives of PA10 were hosted by the Ministry of Regional Development of Czech Republic and dedicated large portion of time to the upcoming revision of the Action Plan that is planned to be finalized by the next summer. In the afternoon part participants presented the main activities they have been working on since last meeting, heard presentations of the projects working on PA10 related topics and defined the steps of cooperation until next meeting. Three suggestions for next meeting location were put forward – the coordinators advocate meetings in various Danube cities to support and promote national discussion on EUSDR across the region.
