4th Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region

The event took place from the 29th to the 30th of October 2015 at the Trade Fair in Ulm to facilitate the  partner countries jointly collaborating on future strategy and evaluate recent accomplishments.

Under the title ‘Smart, Social, Sustainable – Innovation for the Danube Region’ the Annual Forum 2015 focused on innovation, professional training, labor mobility and migration, competitiveness & entrepreneurship as well as the role of civil society.

More than 1200 attendees took part in the two-day event, and they could choose from four themed sessions as well as almost 40 workshops and panel discussions. Alongside this the participants had superb opportunities to actively network and exchange experiences in different strategic approaches and topical developments across the Danube Region. The registration platform offered the opportunity to arrange meetings with other stakeholders and thus put together an individually tailored conference schedule. A separate meeting area provided for face-to-face-meetings was well used.
The attendees were mainly from, professional associations, organizations, clusters, municipalities, regional and city governments, as well as ministries and non-profit organizations.

Mr. Zsolt Keresztúri participated at the event as Business Unit Director of DBH InnoHub and the Cluster Manager of the OMNIPACK Cluster. Mr. Keresztúri emphasized that the Forum was an excellent occasion for starting consortiums and partnerships in the following key EU programs: the Danube Transnational Programme, the INTERREG Europe Programme, Central Europe 2020, and the Horizon 2020 Programme.

He added, that he got acquainted with many innovative ideas and interesting exhibitors in order to widen his knowledge of waste management, biodegradable plastics research, Non-GMO foods and social environmental awareness. Furthermore the proactive participants were open to transferring technology and implementing innovations in other countries. Thus the event fulfilled his expectations and provided a great opportunity for the development of international cooperation throughout the region.

Mr. István Joó, Ministerial Commissioner for EU Strategy in the Danube Region for Hungary announced that the Forum will be held in Budapest in 2017 because Hungary had enjoyed great successes employing this strategy in the fields of water management and energy sector.