The European Parliament would like to have a greener and more “Central-European” Danube-strategy. This was approved on Thursday at the Strassbourg plenary session. The report supports the proposals of the European committee and that of the Member States’. This strategy does not have its own budget but it has to use the Union’s resources and coordinate it with the member states.

The European Parliament would just like to do some fine-tuning on the Danube-strategy that is just being formed says the report which was approved by the majority on Thursday. The vote was: 549 yes, 41 no and 80 abstained. The majority of EP’s representatives were basically supporting the EP’s proposals that were issued last December by the body as it was demonstrated by the debate preceeding the voting, on Monday night and by the document itself. The European Parliament emphasized that comprehensive macro-regional strategies related to the different branches of politics have to be executed first of all. It should all be carried out in light of cohesional politics. Projects financed from European resources have to take the central stage. The report calls attention to make full use of the structural funds distributed among the member states between 2007-2013 besides reinforcing the fundamental principals. There should be no unused or wasted money and the more it goes to the Danube-strategy the better it is. This cooperation will have its own resources. Projects concerning the strategy will have to be financed from restructuring the presently available EU resources.

One of the members of the committee Tamás Deutsch said to the BruxInfo on behalf of the Populist Party: “the system is better this way, instead of having a 50 million Euro budget which would be soon absorbed by the 14 countries”. Member states have to coordinate the operative programs. They have to think jointly and they have to work together to implement the different developments.

“This strategy is helping to make use of funds that have not been utilized” – explained the representative. According to him the EU is striving to target resources that have not been used yet but still available for the member states. He added that there are projects already in the preliminary phase which are to implement the goals of the Duna-strategy.

Although there are eight EU member states taking part in the Duna-strategy (Hungary, Slovakia, The Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia), and six countries outside of the Union (Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Moldova, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Ukraine) but the European Parliament intents to give the central stage to Central-Europe. Mr. Tamás Deutsch, was pointing it out in his interview to Bruxinfo that this enables Hungarian minorities living in the Carpathian basin to enforce their interests.

A change of tone can be observed as well between the EP and the Committee concerning the features of environmental protection related to the Duna-strategy. The program sometimes sets up contradictory goals, for instance: it wants to restore the Danube's ecological equilibrium and improve navigability on the river at the same time.

The European Parliament shares the Council’s Hungarian Presidency’s views which says “not the Danube has to be adjusted to the ships but the ships have to be adjusted to the Danube”. According to Tamás Deutsch the EP would like to have a “greener” strategy.

The proposals accepted by the European Parliament have no binding force. According to the plans the Council will draw conclusions about the strategy which will be accepted during the June session by the Union’s heads of states, however, its implementation will be the European Committee’s task.

(Ministry of Rural Development, Press Office)