Short history

The International Honorary Chair ”Jean Bart” in support of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (CIO-SUERD) was founded in September 2012, at the headquarters of the Romanian Senate, in the presence of the the High Representative of the EU Presidency and of the Minister of Education, Research, Youth and Sports, under the presidency of Honorary President, H.E. Mr. Ambassador Liviu Bota, former Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, in partnership with the Romanian Academy and with kind support from the Office of the National Coordinator for EUSDR – Ministry of Foreign Affairs, coordinated by H.E. Plenipotentiary Minister Mrs. Brandusa PREDESCU. The initiative is coordinated by “Danube-Black Sea” Technical Working Group within EUROLINK-House of Europe Foundation, as promoter – due to its wide experience gained in European and international projects for almost 15 years.

Through the establishment of the “Integrated Development: Danube-Black Sea” Action Group, coordinated by the EUROLINK-House of Europe Foundation, within the Consultative Council for the implementation of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), under the coordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we assumed the mission of contributing decisively and professionally to the consolidation of the interdisciplinary background of the promoters, experts and consultants which work or intent to work in the future, in various priority areas and within the multitude of types of projects for the implementation of EUSDR in Romania, especially in trans-national context.

Thus, following the meeting, participants from 20 Romanian counties joined the National Network of Promoters, Facilitators and Experts for the implementation of EUSDR in Romania and cross-border context. By establishing this first nucleus of experts and specialists, we aim expressly to raise awareness of the leaders in the public and private sector for the encouraging of multinational partnerships, formulating pragmatic projects in due time, the improving of the absorption of European and international funds, as well as strengthening the internal expertise considering the specific of the projects in the Danube Region, in the multi and inter-disciplinary context.

In the early stage of this initiative, we were highly interested to create a better inter-communication, promoting and lobbying for projects in partnership at the confluence of the Danube and Black Sea Basin, in which Romania is really privileged to have a key role in terms of geo-economic, strategic and cultural perspective. This was possible with the support of the European Commission in May 2011, when it was launched the “Black Sea – Danube Regional Network for Social and Economic Innovation”, as the first public-private partnership for initiatives and projects in this geo-economic area.

From then on, we tried to create flexible and dynamic networks, partnerships and strategic involvements in various thematic areas of common interests across entire Europe, through International Network Memberships such as:

• the Social Innovation Europe Initiative – “The European Hub for Social Innovation”. Coordinator: Filippo ADDARII – EUCLID Network (London)
• Anna Lindh Foundation (EuroMed Programme) Network – ALF Romania – Head of Network: Cosmin Dugan – Black Sea University Foundation;
• the FuturICT. Knowledge Accelerator – Scientific Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Dirk Helbing, ETH Zurich, Coordinator: Prof. Steven Bishop, UCL, UK;
• the information portal of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, coordinated by INTERACT (Vienna), under the aegis of European Commission

EUSDR NATIONAL COMMON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME 

(Romanian version)