Floods demostrated need for joint projects

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic has said in her address to the 2nd Conference of Parliaments of Danube Region Countries held in Budapest that the catastrophic consequences of the May floods in the region had demostrated the need for cooperation and the significance of creating and implementing joint projects meant to boost flood protection.

Improvements to projects in environmental risk management that are part of the Danube strategy are a priority, she stressed, adding as an example the use of several IPA programmes for cross-border cooperation worth around EUR 7 million, which Serbia is doing with Romania.

"Besides the solidarity displayed by the people, region and international community, important lessong were also learned about the necessity for cooperation concerning goals and priorities set by life," Gojkovic pointed out.

The Danube strategy is very important to Serbia, as the first strategy by the EU that includes countries that are not EU members, she stressed, adding that cooperation within the strategy, which involves 14 countries, constituted an important experience and an incentive to Serbia's EU integration.

Serbia will host the next parliamentary conference of the Danube region, in 2015, since the bid to host the event was accepted, she said, according to a statement.

During the conference, Gojkovic met with Hungarian Parliament Speaker Laszlo Kover and the two stressed that the relations between the two countries were good, and that Serbia and Hungary had an opportunity to build a joint European future.

A joint statement was adopted at the conference, which emphasises the importance of coordinating flood defences across borders to cover the entire Danube basin and...