Hidrológiai Közlöny, 2017 (97. évfolyam)
2017 / 3. szám - Horváth Balázs - Gombás Károly: EU strategy for the Danube Region
3 EU Strategy for the Danube Region The Danube Region represents one fifth of the European Union’s total area and is home to more than 100 million inhabitants. The region is comprised of 9 EU (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) and 3 accession countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia) and also involves 2 Non-EU countries (Moldova and Ukraine). The states show significant regional disparities in economic and social development. In order to increase growth and strengthen cooperation at a macro-regional level the European Union adopted the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EU SDR) in 2011 under the period of the Hungarian EU Presidency. EU SDR is established with eleven priority areas to harmonise development policies connecting these 14 countries. Hungary committed itself to coordinate three from the eleven priority areas of the Danube Region Strategy: one with the Czech Republic (PA2 - To encourage more sustainable energy) one with Slovakia (PA4 - To restore and maintain the quality of waters) and one with Romania (PA5 - To manage environmental risks). 2017 is the year of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. It is our pleasure to introduce you the current special edition of the magazine, in which you can get a short overview of the financing possibilities for water-related projects in the Danube region, as well as you can get a view on the ongoing capitalisation process, initiated under the Danube Transnational Programme and gives specifics about the concerned project, too. As an important element of our task, the issue will also highlight areas where transboundary cooperation is a great potential— since being the core element of the EUSDR. Managing water quality Water is one of the most important natural resources, basic elements of the human life and its quality determines the quality of our life. Priority Area 4 (PA4) of the EUSDR aiming at to maintain and restore the quality of waters, to ‘safeguard Europe’s water resources’, furthermore to assist in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. EUSDR PA4 gives a hand, e.g. in the promotion of measures addressing waste water treatment measures in non-EU countries, the facilitation of subbasin activities or the improvement of fish migration. To address the above mentioned environmental issues, it is important to map available financial resources and funds and to do so PA4 — together with other priority areas - organises stakeholder networking conferences and seminars, where actual open funds are introduced. The water quality priority area (EUSDR PA4) successfully cooperate with relevant institutions as well as international organisations among others with the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) or the Sava Commission, assists in the process of alignment of funding, facilitates project proposal developments and project implementation as well as gives platform to create networking opportunities towards setting up project consortiums. It is also vital to us to reveal professional areas where further actions are needed. We are aiming at to introduce those topics to the wider public and to call the attention to the need of future collaborations. Balázs Horváth PA 4 - Hungarian priority area coordinator Email: horvath.balazs@ovf.hu Managing environmental risks The Environmental Risks Priority Area (PA5) has three major objectives to follow during its work in close cooperation with the ICPDR and shares the responsibility for the realization of them. First, PA5 addresses the challenges of water scarcity and droughts based on the 2013 update of the Danube Basin Analysis and the ongoing work in the field of climate adaptation. Second, support to implement Danube wide flood risk management plans- under the Floods Directive — to reduce flood risks significantly by 2021. Third, it works to update the accidental risk spots’ inventory at the Danube River Basin level. The most significant activity in the field of environmental risks is to facilitate the flood protection of the Region and to enhance the flood safety of the whole Danube Basin. In order to secure the long-term management possibilities the technical education needs consolidation and a training scheme is under elaboration by the PA5. Though the emphasis is on high water regime, PA5
