18th-19th October 2017. Budapest. The 6th Forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region focused on energy and other major topics, such as: regional infrastructure development, clean connectivity, joint research and Danube Transnational Programme contributing to the Danube Region. In the opening sessions on energy and infrastructure the discussions were held from an economic perspective. Nevertheless, nature made its way into the discussions, due to the presence of WWF DCP into the infrastructure panel. The sustainable infrastructure planning approach was also sustained by the TRANSGREEN presentation in the DTP capitalisation workshops and the project stand.

The EU Strategy for the Danube Region Annual Forum is a large-scale event, which on October 18th-19th 2017 brought together around 900 people from across the region, among which high-level politicians and European Commission representatives. As event host and holder of the EUSDR presidency, the Hungarian Government represented by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán opened the event with remarks centered on the geostrategic role of a partnership in the region. The event continued with a plenary session on “Energy security in the Danube region”, followed by four parallel workshops were offered on “Regional energy security”, “Regional infrastructure development”, “Clean connectivity” and “Increasing the involvement of the non-EU countries of the EUSDR”.

Mrs. Irene Lucius, Regional Conservation Director of WWF DCP took part in the “Regional infrastructure development” workshop as an invited panelist. The panel touched on connecting people according to the TEN-T network and improving border crossings. Mrs. Lucius raised the topic of nature conservation and the loss of biodiversity in case of cutting migration rutes. She recommended including public and stakeholder involvement in infrastructure planning, in order to improve projects. Involving them would lead to lower resistance and avoidance of delays during the construction phase. EUSDR offers a favorable frame for cross-sectoral integrated thinking plus the involvement of civil society.

The DTP Capitalization Workshops were organized according to thematic poles. TRANSGREEN was presented by the project manager, Mrs. Hildegard Meyer in the session dedicated to the Sustainable Mobility Pole. TRANSGREEN and the Carpathian Convention had a joint presence at a common stand in the exhibition area, benefiting from with the support of Project Partner CEEweb and of the Carpathian Convention Secretariat. The project drew the attention of a great number of Forum participants and facilitated meaningful contacts, with people such as Mr. Serban Robert Tupa (EUSDR PA1b Representative) from the Romanian Ministry of Transport or Mr. Frank Zepic (EUSDR PA 1b Coordinator) from the Slovenian Ministry of Infrastructure and Spatial planning.