The new Action Plan for the Danube Region, a key document for the future of the European Macro-region, will be published in October 2019.

On the 15th February at the last meeting of National Coordinators the 14 member states of the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) created a pathway for the new Action plan for the Danube Region as proposed by the Romanian presidency, with support of Danube Strategy Point (DSP) – the newly established coordination secretariat based in Vienna and Bucharest.

The approval of a road map of the new Action Plan for the Danube region represents a further significant step of facilitating joint efforts of addressing major challenges all Strategy’s member states are facing (especially taking into consideration cross-cutting topics such as digitalisation, climate protection, mobility and others). The endorsed timeline considers the drafting process of EU’s cohesion programs for the years 2021 to 2027.

The next significant steps: In each of the 14 Danube countries national consultations will take place. This presents a real bottom–up process. Until end of May 2019 the first draft of the new Action Plan will be finished. In June 2019 at the Annual Forum of EUSDR in Bucharest the Romanian Presidency of the Strategy will provide space for consultations and offer place for a broader exchange with stakeholder and civil society. Based on a series of consolidated inputs by all actors of the Strategy, the European Commission will use these inputs to draft the New Action Plan which prospectively will be endorsed by the Council of Ministers of the Danube Region in autumn 2019.