site.btaPresident Plevneliev Addresses Danube Rectors' Conference in Austria

President Plevneliev Addresses Danube Rectors' Conference in Austria

Krems, Austria, November 10 (BTA) - Addressing a conference in Austria on November 9, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev said that the EU Strategy for the Danube Region has fostered a new culture and a new way of thinking. "It has encouraged dialogue between nation states, local authorities and higher schools in the region. In a knowledge society you cannot develop science and adopt technologies and innovation if you are isolated and walled off," Plevneliev said, as quoted by his Press Secretariat.

The President was speaking at the annual meeting of the Danube Rectors' Conference, entitled "Vision, Knowledge, Prosperity. The Universities' Contribution to the EU Strategy for the Danube Region." The three-day event is hosted by the Danube University Krems.

Plevneliev urged the countries of the Danube region to keep up implementing joint projects in order to improve connectivity and accelerate economic growth. He recalled that in 2015 the gross domestic product of the 14 countries covered by the EU Strategy for the Danube Region totalled 4.6 trillion euro.

He also noted the positive effect of the Danube Transnational Programme which has provided 263 million euro in funding to build an innovative and welfare-oriented Danube region.

"Bulgaria is an outspoken champion of the European development of the Western Balkans through cooperation in the field of security, justice and the economy," Plevneliev stressed.

He further remarked: "Now that multiple crises have left their mark on the global security environment and the international agenda, the European Union should be prevented from becoming a mechanical assembly of countries and lose the meaning of its existence." He warned that Europe is in danger, because the generation that tore down the Berlin Wall is now putting up new walls. "We need to address the causes of the crises, not the effects," the Bulgarian President appealed.

The annual meeting of the Danube Rectors' Conference is attended by representatives of 71 universities in 15 countries enrolling 3 million students from all over the world. One of them is the Angel Kunchev University of Rousse, Bulgaria.

On Thursday, Plevneliev is in the Hungarian capital Budapest to take part in a conference of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on how to reinvigorate growth and investment in the EU member states where the bank invests. He will join a high-level panel on "Reinvigorating Growth, Competitiveness and Investment."