Head of the Center for European Studies, Professor Grubiša, spoke about the  Danube region and the Danube Strategy of the European Union, while  Professor Cipek introduced the historical concept of the development of Central Europe. Special guest of the roundtable, Erhard  Busek, Ph.D. stressed the  possibilities and problems of regional cooperation in Central Europe and the Danube region.

Danube region as a priority for the European Union

What could connect 115 million people from eight European Union member states (Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bulgaria  and Romania) with six non-member countries of the European Union and the Danube region (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Ukraine and  Moldova), except for the river that flows through them? Judging by the Danube strategy of the European Commission proposed in December 2010, eleven priority  areas are of common interest related to climate change, pollution, transport and  energy connections, strengthening cultural cooperation and tourism. The strategy  adopted in April this year should serve as a basis for cooperation on future macroregional projects from structural and cohesion funds for which the EU set aside about a hundred billion euros in the period from 2007 to 2013, said Professor Grubiša.

Nonexistent Central Europe in the Germanic and Slavic perception

Professor Tihomir Cipek talked about the concept of Central Europe, which according to him is primarily political since Central Europe has no precise borders. In history, Europe was not divided into east and west, but north and south, until such division was changed by the Napoleonic wars, added Professor Cipek. He also added that there are two interepretations of Central Europe. First is the Germanic interpretation according to which Central Europe (Mitteleuropa) is a union of states from the Baltic to the Adriatic, which has a role of protecting the Germanic peoples from the French and Russian threat. The second is the Slavic concept according to which Central Europe is a union of states that should protect the Slavic countries. Since the 1980s the notion of Central Europe has been actively used by the German Social Democrats to overcome the separation and the conflicts between Eastern and Western Europe. At that time, a new concept of Eastern Europe emerges, characteristic of the Cold War period. Professor Cipek follows the thesis of Milan Kundera, the writer who believes that the concept of Central Europe by political tradition and civic culture does not support the justification of the communist dictatorship, which, consequently, excludes Russia from Europe.
Today Central Europe consists of countries that emerged from communist dictatorships, now largely based on Christianity, and to which one belongs depending on the acceptance of the principles of democracy.

Central Europe as a political construction and the Danube as an intersection of   cultures

“Central Europe is a mindset that we can assemble by mutual cooperation, a political structure rather than a cultural and historical concept“, said Erhard Busek, Ph.D. The Danube region has a rich history, it is an intersection of many cultures, an area through which many nations have passed leaving their cultural heritage behind. According to Busek, the Danube can be historically comparable to the Rhine, but unlike the Danube, 90 % of the Rhine's flow has been primarily used in commercial purposes. Utilization of the Danube is only 7 % which forms the basis for future cooperation on the river that has separated populations through history. Utilization of the Danube is very weak due to poor and old equipment on the coast that should be improved and renewed, and more than a hundred shipwrecks at the bottom of the river affecting water quality, tourism and fishing. In order to enhance the protection of nature, water and the transport routes it is of great importance to take on the projects that are being offered to the Danubian countries through various forms of cohesion and structural funds of the EU and to improve regional cooperation of the Customs Service. For example, Moldova, having recognized the significance of the Danube in transport, built a port on the available bank of only 600 meters of the river that flow through it.
“Although people living in the Danube region are of different nationalities, they are all connected by Europe and the common European identity“, Erhard Busek, Ph.D. concluded the roundtable on regional cooperation in Central Europe and the Danube region.