PREPARING THE DANUBE LIGHTHOUSE CONFERENCE

A successful high-level international conference was organised in Prague during the Czech EU Presidency on the 7th of December 2022 under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture Czech Republic by the BIOEAST Initiative and the BIOEAST HUB CZ in collaboration with Technology Centre Prague.. The highlevel representatives of ministries from the Danube Region countries were assured by the European Commission’s representatives that the EU Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030 will provide resources, specifically the Danube Lighthouse could solve emerging issues and could offer solutions on freshwater related challenges, but a strong macro-regional commitment is necessary.

Many distinguished guests had their imputs namely for example the Missions Manager Mr Kestutis Sadauskas (Deputy Director-General DG MARE), Ms Elisabetta Balzi (Head of the Healthy Seas and Oceans Unit DG RTD), Martin Kovac (state secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture of Slovakia), Aniko Juhasz (deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture from Hungary), Mr. Gheorghe Constantin (Deputy General Director of Water Department, Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests Romania), Petr Chalupa (Head of Fisheries and Apiculture, Ministry of Agriculture Czech Republic) 

The conference shows that freshwater issues are becoming ever more challenging for the BIOEAST countries, at the same time implementation of any agenda is extremely scattered and there is a need to discuss priorities concerning the freshwater based bioeconomy, specifically on research and innovation agendas. Barna Kovacs resumes: “BIOEAST Thematic Working Fresh Water Based Bioeconomy has the potential to act as a macro regional science-policy network where different interests can be discussed and national initiatives can be networked so it can act as the horizontal enablers of the EU Mission.”

More photos on the Czech version.