On 30 March, at the CEI Headquarters, Mr. Franc Zepic from the Slovenian Ministry of Transport and Mr. Igor Mally from the Government Office for Development and European Affairs in Slovenia, met with CEI Secretary General, Amb. Gerhard Pfanzelter and his staff, for an exchange of views on possible ways of cooperation within the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR).
The proposal for an EU Strategy for the Danube region, adopted by the European Commission on 8 December 2010 represents an important milestone for the CEI region. In this context, the CEI presented its activities and projects stretching along the territory of the Danube River and pointed out that the CEI was mentioned twice in the EUSDR Action Plan, in the field of Energy and Business.
The CEI is leading two relevant EU-funded projects: South-East European Transport Axis Cooperation (SEETAC) - under the South East Europe Programme, and Accessibility and Development for the Re-launch of the Inner Adriatic Area (ADRIA-A), funded by the Cross-border Cooperation Programme Italy – Slovenia 2007-2013. Both projects could represent flagship initiatives for the region, as they promote good, inter-linked and sustainable transport systems by increasing the regional mobility and multimodality.
The Slovenian representatives expressed their interest in all CEI activities: special attention was paid to transport projects and to their willingness to further cooperate in the EUSDR context. They also expressed their intention to hold permanent consultations with the CEI in the filed of transport to establish synergies within the ongoing CEI transport projects as well as contribute to the implementation of the EUSDR action plan.
Amb. Pfanzelter underlined that the ‘Danube Strategy’ provided a long term cooperation framework where all countries in the CEI region, regardless of their EU status, could work jointly on current and future challenges. In this regard, the CEI could play a decisive role.
For more information: fortuna@cei-es.org