EU Danube strategy key to overcoming disparities: Barroso

(BUCHAREST) - The European Union's strategy for the Danube is key to overcoming disparities in the region, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday during a summit in Bucharest.

"There has been major progress since the beginning of the 1990s, but there are still considerable disparities in the region," Barroso told the delegates of the 14 countries bordering the second-longest river in Europe.

"The challenge that lies ahead of us is to speed up the process of overcoming these disparities, and in this context the EU strategy for the Danube is an innovation in terms of policy-making," he added.

Covering 20 percent of the EU's territory and counting more than 115 million inhabitants, the Danube's basin shelters some of Europe's poorest regions, mainly in Bulgaria and Romania, but also some of the richest -- in Germany and Austria.

In order to bridge the gaps, the strategy aims at modernising road, rail and river infrastructure, attracting more tourists, creating a regional energy market and reinforcing security, all while protecting the environment.

Improving shipping on this river is the top priority, as currently merely 3.0 to 6.0 percent of its potential is being used, experts stress.

According to the latest comprehensive figures available, 50 million tonnes of goods were transported on the Danube in 2007, the specialised organisation Via Donau told AFP in June. By way of comparison, more than 300 million tonnes of goods are shipped on the Rhine every year.

Romania hopes to capitalise on this programme in order to build two new bridges across the Danube and a canal linking Bucharest to the river, which would make it the fifth capital city to be a port on the Danube, president Traian Basescu said.

The strategy, which is to be officially adopted by the EU next year, does not come with a budget. But Barroso said it should draw on the 95 billion euros (133 billion dollars) made available by Brussels to the countries in the region until 2013.

In a declaration adopted at the end of the meeting, the signatories pledged to implement the programmes initiated and endorsed by the participating countries and to make better use of the structural and cohesion European funds.

They also "invited the international financial institutions to contribute to the implementation of the projects by their specific financial instruments and technical assistance."

"The Strategy for the Danube can become one of the EU's best long-term projects, it can be a success story," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said during a press conference.

The fourteen countries bordering the Danube are Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, and Ukraine.

The Danube, 2,860 kilometres (1,787 miles) in length originates in Germany and empties in the Black Sea, via a delta shared by Romania and Ukraine.