Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria: “We want the Danube to become an internal river of the EU”
25.06.2024 - 11:21
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria, Alexander Schallenberg, believes that in the future the Danube can become an internal river of the European Union.
He stated this during the opening of the 13th annual EU Strategy Forum for the Danube Region in Vienna, writes Ukrinform.
According to him, the Danube region should be at the top of the European Commission’s agenda, and the EUSDR should be a “testing laboratory for EU membership.”
“We want the Danube to become an internal river of the EU. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine proved that EU expansion is our greatest geopolitical tool, and it must be used,” Alexander Shallenberg stressed.
He also condemned Russia’s shelling of Ukraine’s infrastructure and Russia’s interference with freedom of navigation.
According to the minister, it is currently important to support transport “roads of solidarity” for the export of agricultural products from Ukraine, in particular through the Danube. It could also become an important logistics hub in the reverse direction during Ukraine’s recovery.
The heads of foreign affairs of Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Moldova and Serbia, as well as representatives of the governments of Germany, Romania, Slovenia, Hungary and Ukraine took part in the 13th annual EU Strategy Forum for the Danube Region.
The strategy unites 14 countries located in the Danube river basin: 9 EU member states (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania), as well as countries that are not currently EU members – Ukraine , Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro.
We will remind you that in June, the 101st session of the Danube Commission (DC) took place in the city of Budapest, during which a new leadership was elected.
