Establishment, Implementation and Current Challenges of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, redefining the relationship of the European Economic Community with its neighbours and expanding eastward was essential in order to ensure economic growth and European stability. The adoption of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region in 2011 – which took place during the Hungarian EU presidency – also acted in this direction. Since then, in this European growth space, moving towards the realisation of the goals defined in the joint Action Plan of the 14 countries, the strategy has helped to strengthen political cooperation, adopt European standards, share experiences between the EU and accessing countries, contributed to an improved connectivity in the region and to the management of transnational challenges. In the absence of own funds, it is necessary to embed the strategy into existing EU funding schemes. In the current geopolitical situation, European stability and expansion are of particular importance, for which the Danube Strategy can provide important support as a matured development framework.