Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, will put the spotlight on the development of a European Strategy for the Danube Region, as closing speaker of a major conference, taking place next week 19 to 21 April in Vienna (Austria) and Bratislava (Slovakia). This conference is the third in a series of broad consultation events aimed at shaping plans for the Strategy, which seeks to improve environmental conditions and develop the huge economic potential of the Danube Region.

The event is organised by the European Commission, the City of Vienna, the Austrian Ministry for European and International Affairs, the City of Bratislava and the Government Office of Slovakia.

Given the inter-linked nature of many of the challenges facing the region, cooperation within a 'macro-regional' framework is intended to produce more effective coordination. The two day conference will focus on three key themes - environment, transport and energy - but it will also tackle the information society and urban issues. It will provide a platform for a wide range of stakeholders to examine how these key issues can be addressed to produce integrated and coherent results.

The Danube Region encompasses 14 countries (of which 8 are EU Member States) ranging from Germany in the West to the Ukraine in the East. It has huge economic, environmental and social potential. However, significant economic, social and infrastructure disparities which developed during the divided past of the region still persist today.

The aim of the new Strategy will be to help eradicate this unequal legacy and facilitate trade. It also has potential to make a key contribution to the wider Europe 2020 strategy that will be finalised at the June European Council. Practical projects to be developed within the framework of the Strategy are already being discussed.

Although the strategy will not come with extra EU finance, a considerable amount of funding is already available to the region through a host of EU programmes. The aim is to use this available support – € 100 billion alone has been allocated from the cohesion policy (European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund, European Social Fund) between 2007 and 2013 – to  greater effect and show how macro-regional cooperation can help tackle local problems.

Fourteen countries, among them eight EU Member States, are taking part in the preparation of a macro-regional strategy stemming, most recently, from the adoption last October of the Baltic Sea Strategy put forward by the Swedish Presidency of the EU.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation to define a strategy to develop the economic potential of Europe's longest river and to improve social and environmental conditions in the region.

The Commission will propose an Action Plan and governance system in December 2010. This is scheduled for discussion and likely endorsement by Member States in early 2011: the Danube Strategy is expected to be adopted in the first half of 2011 during the Hungarian Presidency.