Hungary will organise a summit on the Danube strategy in February 2010, Foreign Minister Peter Balazs announced after a Wednesday meeting of a working group making preparations for Hungary’s EU presidency in 2011.
The Danube strategy is a plan for regional cooperation among six EU and four non-EU countries — Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova — highlighting such topics as navigation on the Danube, environmental issues and cultural diversity. Programmes of the Danube strategy will be EU-financed, Balazs said.
On Hungary’s EU presidency, Balazs said that the bulk of events connected to the presidency will be held in Budapest but two or three other sites are also being considered. The working group’s co-chair Zsolt Nemeth, of the opposition Fidesz party, said Balatonfured (W), Szeged (S) and Visegrad (N) could be the sites considered for organising EU presidency events.
Balazs added that as part of preparations for the trio presidency with Spain and Belgium to start in January next year a Spanish and a Belgian diplomat have arrived in Hungary to coordinate work.
