Call for Experts to the 8th EUSDR Annual Forum

The 8th Edition of the EUSDR Annual Forum will take place on 27th and 28th of June 2019 in Bucharest. This event is organized by the Romanian Presidency of the EUSDR – Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania together with the DG Regio/European Commission and the Danube Transnational Programme (DTP), with the technical support of the Danube Strategy Point (DSP).

The event, organized under the motto “Building cohesion for a shared prosperity in the Danube Region”, will address a wide range of topics from connectivity and regional mobility to economy (for fostering clusters development, transport, tourism and ICT). The first day of the Forum will focus on cohesion building: increasing economic convergence, regional connectivity and mobility, while the second day will be dedicated to ensuring better synergies, results and sustainability for macro-regional strategies.

Emphasis will be placed on the possibilities of creating synergies between macro-regional strategies and EU programmes and policies, as well as on the DTP’s role in the region. Furthermore, best practices for embedment of objectives pertaining to macro-regional strategies within the mainstream operational programmes will feature on the agenda, along with discussions over the Revision of the EUSDR Action Plan and future opportunities of cooperation among key EUSDR stakeholders.

The 8th Annual Forum will continue the tradition of bringing a balanced number of high-level officials and independent civil society experts from both EU and non-EU countries that will share their current developments which could have an impact on the Danube region. In order to properly reflect the positions of all relevant actors of EUSDR during the 8th Annual Forum sessions, the RO Presidency is launching this call for experts.

Selection of speakers and facilitators will be based on a transparent and inclusive process of cooperation with all relevant EUSDR stakeholders. The full criteria for selection of the experts will be ensured by the organizers, based on:

• Equitable geographical representation (national, rural-urban balance);
• Relevance of the applicant’s expertise either for the thematic panel or workshop he/she applies for;
• The need to achieve a proper balance between invited government officials, key-stakeholders and civil society experts;
• Gender-balance.

Eligible applications will include:

• a short biography (maximum half page) of the proposed speaker and one photo;
• a short abstract of the subject the expert would like to address under the specific point of the agenda (enclosed);
• a Curriculum vitae in Europass format, including the contact details (maximum 3 pages) and a color photo (jpg/jpeg).

All documents should be submitted in the English language, Word format (e.g. doc, docx) by 25th of April 2019 at the following e-mail address: suerd@mae.ro (Submission of applications has been closed).

The Romanian Presidency of EUSDR is looking forward to receive your recommendations for 1-2 experts from each EUSDR country. Travel costs for the selected guests, speakers and moderators can be reimbursed upon request, up to 600 Euros/per person. Accommodation costs (four stars hotels) will be covered up to a maximum of 2 nights, based on prior booking requests of the applicants.

For registration to the 8th EUSDR Annual Forum, all participants, including experts and moderators are requested to use this link.

Information about the Annual Forum agenda, concept and back-to-back events is available on the following websites: http://suerd.gov.ro/en/ and www.danube-region.eu