REPORT ON MACRO-REGIONAL STRATEGIES, DANUBE STRATEGIC PROJECT FUND & INITIATIVES TO FOSTER COOPERATION – 12TH STEERING GROUP MEETING
On the 10th of March 2017, the members of the Steering Group of Priority Area 10 “Institutional Capacity & Cooperation” met at the representation of Baden-Württemberg in Berlin for the 12th Steering Group Meeting. The PA 10 Steering Group also welcomed the coordination of Priority Area 11 “Security”, Blaga Stancheva at the meeting.
After a tour de table with the Steering GRoup members, the coordination of Priority Area 10 provided a short overview of this year’s EUSDR Annual Forum that is planned to take place in Budapest from 18 to19 of October 2017. Prior to the Annual Forum, Priority Area 10 organises its 4th Danube Participation Day on the 17 of October at the Andrassy University (Budapest) in cooperation with the Danube Civil Society Forum and the Baden-Württemberg Foundation. The up-coming Participation Day will focus on the topic “Bottom Up and Top Down : Science meets Innovation and Participation”. In addition to the cooperation between public administration, civil society and research, PAC 10 will present the agenda on civil society and local actors in the 4 macro-regional strategies.
BETTER USE OF THE POTENTIAL OF MACRO-REGIONAL STRATEGIES
The European Commission presented the discussion that followed after the release of the Commission’s report on the four macro-regional strategies. In addition to the descriptions of the state of play in each strategy, the European Commission provided recommendation for the future. The report points out common challenges that gardually vary among the strategies such as the monitoring of the strategies, the alignment of funds or communication strategies. In the EUSDR, the EC observed an improving culture of cooperation. However, the political momentum as well as administrative capacities in non-EU countriesshould be increased. Currently, the EU member states discuss how the potential of the macro-regional strategies could be better used for the next funding period.
DANUBE STRATEGIC PROJECT FUND: NEXT STEPS
The call of the Danube Strategic Project Fund ended in mid-February 2017. 56 projects were submitted to the Priority Area Coordinators and are currently subject of the first step of the assessment procedure. The first assessment will be finalised in May. Subsequently, the selected projects will be invited to submit a full application. After the second step of the assessment procedure, the selected projects will be approved in autumn 2017.
INITIATIVES TO FOSTER CAPACITY-BUILDING AND COOPERATION
The coordination of Priority Area 10 presented the activities planned for 2017. Additionally, PAC 10 had the pleasure to welcome two representatives of PA 10 related projects from the Danube Transnational Programme: Blaž Barboric, Geodetic Institute of Slovenia, presenting the project ATTRACTIVE DANUBE and Jani Kozina, Research Centre of theSlovenian Academy of Sciences & Arts, presenting the project AgriGo4Cities. Both projects are part of the Capitalisation Strategy of the Danube Transnational Programme under the thematic pole “Participative Governance” that is co-managed by Priority Area 10.
The project ATTRACTIVE DANUBE aims at strengthening multi-level and transnational governance and institutional capacities in regard to territorial development. Therefore, the project consortium develops a permanent transnational platform for monitoring territorial attractiveness.
The project AgriGo4Cities focuses on enhancing participation of vulnerable groups in public governance through Participatory Urban and Peri-urban agriculture (UPA). With this innovative approach, the project partnership seeks to foster participative urban planning processes and strengthen urban sustainable development.
The minutes and annexes of the 12th Steering Group Meeting are available on the website of Priority Area 10.
