Osservatorio sui Balcani submits the final agenda of �Danube: Europe is meeting� to the EU Parliament in Strasbourg

Last November, a delegation made of different members of the Osservatorio sui Balcani presented to the EU Parliament in Strasbourg the final document of the initiative �Danube: Europe is meeting�.

The document was approved in the Beograd Sava Centre on September the 20th, following a ten day boat journey on the Danube organized by the Osservatorio, an Italian based NGO and electronic media committed to the European reunification, together with Italian Consortium of Solidarity and ten local and international NGOs (among them OneWorld-SEE).

Over 60 NGO activists, media representants and local elected councillors coming from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Hungary, Italy and many other countries had cruised the Danube from Wien to Belgrade on the boat rented by the organization (the Hungarian �Gyor�).

The boat stopped in all major cities along the journey (Wien, Bratislava, Budapest, Vukovar and Novi Sad) before reaching Belgrade on Friday the 19th. All stops where marked by public meetings and cultural events, focusing on issues such as environment and water resource management, the role of media in the EU integration process and the role of local communities in the building of a new Europe.

The Belgrade final Conference drafted a work agenda and a plan for the future of the network established in the frame of the wider campaign �Europe from below, Europe beyond the borders�. The final document, titled �Statement for a Europe without borders�, sets the working agenda within a common base of action, focusing on topics such as the environment and public goods management, local development, a Europe of cities and citizens. The �Statement for a Europe without borders� finally addresses the political need for a quick re-unification of Europe, starting from the bottom up.

On November the 19th,the initiative and its results where presented by the delegation of Osservatorio sui Balcani to different European MPs, among those more active in the EU Parliament on South East European issues.

In a series of individual meetings, the activities and work performed in the frame of the �Europe from below� campaign and the results of the �Danube: Europe is meeting� experience where introduced to Mr Demetrio Volcic, Ms Doris Pack, Mr Giorgio Lisi, Mr Hannes Swoboda, Ms Luisa Morgantini, and Mr Joost Lagendijk.

The latter, Mr Joost Lagendijk, of the European Greens, was rapporteur for the EU Parliament�s Commission of Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defense on the second yearly report on the Stabilization and Association process of South East Europe.

The report, finally approved during the common session of the EU Parliament on November the 20th, owes many contributions to the document approved by the different European local communities and NGOs who had taken part to the Belgrade conference at the end of the �Danube: Europe is meeting event�.
The EU Parliament�s report accepts elements of the agenda set in Beograd in three specific matters: freedom of movement and the issue of the visa regime, local development, the role of local communities in the European integration process.

The report also highlights the perspective of a European integration for the SEE countries overall, emphasizing the position already expressed by the European Council at the Thessaloniki summit.

On the issue of visas and freedom of movement, the document states that: �The current existing visa regime between the EU and the South East European countries undermines and slows down the European perspective for these countries and humiliates its citizens�, adding that the EU Parliament �calls on the European Council and Commission to set a clear path aiming at easing the current visa regime as the countries of reference gradually start the reform process.�

Furthermore, the document stresses the role of local governments, inviting the European Commission and the European Reconstruction Agency to �assist local authorities in adopting participatory planning budgets and in promoting pacts for local development.� A specific stress on the issue of local development also emerges in the call for supporting traditional local economies and microcredit initiatives through CARDS programmes, thus favouring local development together with a sense of ownership and responsibility.