Ekaterina Zaharieva: Danube Strategy Successful in Branding “Danube” as River that Unites Rather than Divides
18 October 2018 News
“This was the most important year for Bulgaria since it joined the EU because of the overlap of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU and the first Bulgarian Presidency of the Danube Strategy. Set in the foundations of our efforts and in our goals for the two Presidencies were the words stability, prosperity and security, future and change, and getting closer to each other,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva said at a press conference before the opening of the Seventh Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region.
As President of the Council of the EU, with a priority to provide a European perspective to the countries of the Western Balkans, Bulgaria is working for building closer bonds between the countries of the region, bonds between the people and ones facilitating businesses, more security, more focus by the EU on our neighbours,” the Foreign Minister added. “The cultural and historical heritage and tourism were singled out as priorities for our Presidency of the Danube Strategy, and our goals are more strategic projects with viable results for the people of all countries that participate in it,” our top diplomat said.
Bulgaria took over the Presidency of the Danube Strategy for the first time in October 2017. After the two-day forum currently taking place in Sofia, our country will pass on the baton to Romania, which will take over the format’s Presidency next year.
“We should all unite and work to ensure more transparent financing in the next program cycle, so that we would be able to meet our strategic goals,” Ekaterina Zaharieva said at the press conference. She went on to add that 262 million euros have been set aside for the region for the next budget period.
Deputy Prime Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva opened the event with a greeting on behalf of the Bulgarian Government. “The main goal of the Danube Strategy at the time when it was established and approved eight years ago was to connect people, to make the Danube Region more visible, to unite some of the EU’s most developed regions with some of the less developed ones. Beside the nine EU Member States, five other countries were included, which are still not members of the European family but are aspiring to join it,” she said in her address to the guests of the forum.
Zaharieva highlighted the achievements of this macroregional cooperation framework, including the financing of many specific projects and the creation of jobs for the people of this region. “Among the most important ones was the branding of the Danube as a trade mark not of a river that divides, but as one that unites. This region has one of the richest and most beautiful cultural and historical heritages and some of the most talented and highly motivated people,” Ekaterina Zaharieva said.
Zaharieva congratulated the Bulgarian Ministries that are involved in the Danube Strategy for their idea to prepare an analysis of the results in order to direct future efforts at building on the achievements and at focusing on specific strategic problems.
The Foreign Minister thanked the European Commission and the European Commissioner for Regional Development, Corina Crețu, for their excellent support for Bulgaria’s Presidency of the Danube Strategy.
“History should not serve as our jail, it should be our teacher and is something we should take pride in. This has also been one of Bulgaria’s goals in the past year,” Zaharieva said in conclusion.
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