1 MOBILISATION OF RESOURCES TO IMPLEMENT EU STRATEGY FOR DANUBE REGION, ITS ACTIONS AND PROJECTS, inc. THE CONTRIBUTION OF COHESION POLICY Conference on the EU Strategy for the Danube Region Ruse/ Giurgiu, 10 – 11 May 2010 Colin Wolfe European Commission

2 Mobilisation of resources, crucial topic to make Strategy happen Once we agree on:  Priorities  Actions  Flagships Then we must align:  Policy  Instruments  Funding All sources of funding vital (EU, national, IFI, private) But Structural Funds = € 95 bn ( ), and there is a large amt. (over 50%) still to be used

3 Many SF priorities  Danube priorities (they reinforce each other)  MOBILITY (TEN-T)  ENERGY (TEN-E)  ENV (River Basin Mgmt. Plan) But also Danube added-value  Enterprise & Markets  Research  ICT, Knowledge (e.g. Bulgaria  Austria, Romania  Bavaria)

4 In SF programmes we can draw on Baltic experience, as already discussed in Bratislava in March 2010  introduce awareness in Operational Programmes (OP) of « Danube context »  « screen » OP versus STRATEGY  consider aligning selection criteria for: Actions Flagships  consider priority axis modification  utilise e.g. Art 37 (6) of the Regulation and other opportunities  seek « good practice » or « development links » Danube-wide  publicise/ communicate Danube-wide relevance (labelling, events etc.)  monitor & report to Annual Report/ Stakeholder Forum

5 In all this you will have assistance  All priorities (MOBILITY, ENERGY, RTD, ENV) will have co-ordinators: Programmes, Policy, etc. As well as possible support for  Feasibility studies  Pilot projects (already often in INTERREG B)  Project development  Financial packages  Technical monitoring expertise –drawing on JASPERS, E.I.B. etc. As well as  Exchange of good practice (Bratislava)  Discussion of common techical issues  Facilitating practical links strategy  OPs –drawing especially on INTERACT

6 In addition, there should be links to EU Commission expertise via  Line DGs  Good European practice  Governance & rule-of-law issues  Links to « Future programming » discussions  Overall support through « Reference Docs »  Overall aim to make all interventions more effective, better value-for-money