Space with high potential

For Peter Schneidewind, managing director of the ÖIR, the motives for the launching of the investigation are quite clear. “The Danube Basin is already getting more and more attention today. On the one hand as a macro region with a high economic growth potential, on the other, due to its ecological importance. If you look at its dimensions, it is obvious that these issues are important for the whole of Europe.”

Soon after the fall of the Iron Curtain the EU Commission was positive that there would be an urgent need for detailed information on the respective territories, but also on the spatial effects of the integration process with respect to the membership of Central and Eastern European countries – particularly in view of a motivation of these countries and regions to cooperate, but also for the optimum appropriation of funds.

“Our five-part study begins with a consideration of the qualities of the Danube region and the presentation of the investigation methods in order to proceed to the core issue of the paper – i.e. what regions the Danube catchment area is actually made up of,” explains Peter Schneidewind. To answers this question the experts employed geographical and political parameters. The result was a differentiation of the Danube region into a so-called core area, and in peripheral regions. The former consists of those countries, which are already EU members or acceding and whose territories account for a major part of the Danube Basin; the latter comprise adjacent regions. The data material was collected and analysed in the fields of demography, economy, transport, environment and energy; acceding countries within the core zone were investigated in depth.

Part two of the DSS comprehensively addresses the most important mainsprings of regional development – demography and economy, but also examines the equipment of countries as to infrastructure and the state of the environment. With respect to demography, Schneidewind gives a brief insight into the results of the study. “In the major part of the regions under inspection the population clearly tends to get older and older, although on different levels. At the same time the number of regions with slightly dropping population figures is larger than that of regions with a growing number of inhabitants. Principally we assume that migration will only play a minor role in regional development.”

A look on the rural/urban development processes in the EU and the acceding countries shows definite differences. These are due to the industrialisation in the latter, which set in comparably late, but has been vehemently spurred on. The chapters on the economies in the Danube region disclose the actual character of the reform process, with the major benchmarks being: the specific structure of the economy at its beginning and the rate but also the quality of the reform process. As expected, the reform process brings forward regional inequalities within the countries, but also between the states. The national capitals always profit from this growing gap and mostly had this privilege already under the former regimes.

Another major task is to observe the labour markets. On the one hand, the rise of unemployment figures could be slowed down in many regions, on the other hand the development of a labour market could not even be initiated.

Definitely decisive for the development of a region is its accessibility and its traffic infrastructure. In this connection the DSS mainly points to poor capacities of transport systems in the acceding countries, particularly with regard to the development of decentralised regions. At the same time, it also records first positive results – e.g. the cooperative fixing of the high-level (pan-European) traffic network in the frame of the so-called TINA Initiative (Transport Infrastructure Needs Assessment). At the same time the DSS emphasises the role of the Danube as a major European corridor.

Due to the pushing of the industry and large-scale agriculture in the past 40 years the acceding countries are facing huge environmental problems – on the other hand, for example, the small number of vehicles helped preserving major “assets” of the natural and cultural heritage, which are now coming under pressure.

One of the most obvious specialities of the Danube region is the dominant role of the borders and border regions. After all, these regions cover more than half of the surface of the core area and house about 60 percent of the population of these countries. The border regions are not only territories of ethnical bondage – and thus definitely the focus of intensified cooperation in the future. They are also the regions, which will particularly have to cope with the negative effects of transnational interaction, e.g. unfair competition, etc. (part four of the study). In this context, the DSS assumes that – given the fact that certain measures are taken – it should be possible to maintain an overall positive welfare effect for this region. By the way, due the high flexibility of their economies, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Northern Italy, as well as all the Austrian regions would generally profit from the EU membership of the CEE countries.

The fifth part of the DSS attempts to develop recommendations for a future organisation of transnational cooperation from these analyses, or rather options for local policies. Thus, in the framework of the scenario “proDanube 2010” a picture is drawn of the Danube region of how it could present itself in about 10 years. Benchmarks of proDanube 2010 are the presently developing network of cities and the regions, whose development is considered crucial for the future of the Danube region.

The realisation of the positive picture, however, also requires a suitable institution which shall embrace the recommended regional development strategies. Peter Schneidewind keeps deploring the lack of such a body and has additionally listed the tasks at issue:

• Initiation of a “Danube Region Cooperation” (DRC) to be fully supported on the part of top politics (national/regional). The EU Initiative INTERREG IIIB could – under certain circumstances – provide the necessary framework. Main instrument of the DRC should be the promotion of key projects in accordance with the global strategy.
  
• Permanent reporting on these efforts at congresses regularly held, which are made up of representatives from governments, the administration and science.
  
• Creation of transitional rules for the period of the acceding process, which shall not only consider protectionist interests, but shall also help absorbing the unintentional effects of an “exclusion” of countries joining the Union at a later date.
  
• Making available convincing transnational
  development instruments for coordination (e.g. DRC) in the framework of the pre-access aid programmes for each candidate country.

According to the ÖIR managing director, there is also a need for action in the distribution of responsibilities. “The newly created regions of the Danube catchment area must be particularly enabled to play an active political role in the future. This will require not only a redistribution of responsibilities, but also the appropriation of funds necessary for this endeavour.”

The Danube Space Study (DSS) is available as CD-ROM for EUR 19,19 (in English). (Source: aqua press Int. 3/2001)
Mag. Christof Hahn

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