29 January 2010

BRUSSELS - Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Bozidar Djelic said that Serbia today officially joined the preparation of a comprehensive EU strategy for the Danube region.
Djelic, who is on a two-day visit to Brussels, said in a statement to Tanjug news agency that in autumn Serbia will host a summit which will look into ways of financing this strategy, which will be officially presented during Hungary’s presidency over the EU, in the first half of 2011.

After the meeting with Director-General of the Directorate-General for Regional Policy Dirk Ahner, Djelic said that this is a first strategy in which Serbia is included from the very beginning and in which it will participate as a partner, in the same way as EU member states.

He explained that the Danube strategy is a future big macro regional strategy of the EU, which will be drafted after the model of last year’s strategy for the Baltic region.

Serbia has a significant capacity, especially with more than 600 kilometres of the Danube basin, which is a quarter of the total navigable part of the river, he said.

Djelic recalled that our country has significant opportunities in the area of infrastructure, environment, tourism and transport, which is why it will be extremely active in developing and implementing this strategy, which will soon be granted significant funding from the European budget.

He explained that the participation of Serbia in the development of these strategies extremely important because our country can promote its future as a key country in the field of transport in South East Europe.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that by linking Corridor 7 on the Danube with Corridor 10 in railway and road transport and by establishing a cargo centre and through the development of multi-modular transportation, Serbia would become a logistic centre in Southeast Europe.

With such a position, it will be much easier to attract foreign direct investment, said Djelic.

Source: EkoForum