European Commission President Jose Manuel Barosso will arrive in Romanian capital Bucharest, on November 8, to attend the third summit on the Danube Strategy, Viorel Ardeleanu, national coordinator on the Danube Strategy, said on Monday.
According to him, Barosso will attend, alongside high officials in fourteen Danube countries, the last summit on the EU Strategy for the Danube Region before the final adoption of the strategy by the European Commission, on December 8.
Following the Baltic Sea Strategy, officially launched on 10 June 2009, the Danube Strategy officially took off on 19 June 2009 when the European Council invited the Commission to develop a strategy for the area around the Danube. The Danube Strategy should be finalized by December 2010 and launched in early 2011 under the Hungarian Presidency of the European Union. The next 12 months will be dedicated to defining the main pillars, types of actions envisaged, identification of flagship projects and coordination of existing initiatives, namely, setting the ground for full implementation of the Danube Strategy from 2011 onwards.
The Danube River crosses ten countries, of which six are European Union member states, namely, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.