Danube-Networkers

Visit of the European Parliament

Danube –Networkers in the European Parliament in Strasbourg

On the 15th of June 2010, 60 Danube-Networkers headed off to Strasbourg, in the framework of the final partner meeting in Bad Urach. MP Michael Theurer, German Member of the European Parliament, had invited the 7 partner groups for a visit of the parliament and a dialogue with him. For most of the participants, this meant the first contact with a European institution.

The visit started with a guided tour through the Parliament and a lunch in the canteen. From 2pm to 4 pm, a dialogue with members of the European Parliament was scheduled. MP Michael Theurer and the two Romanian MPs Silvia-Adriana Ticau and Petru Luhan from Romania took enough time to present the Danube Region Strategy of the European Commission in detail and address the pressing economic and societal challenges in the Danube area as well as the various questions of the seniors.

Michael Theurer stressed the importance of turning the historical „Danube monarchy“ into a „Danube democracy“. At this point, civil society needs to get involved and thus, he was glad to see initiatives like the Danube-Networkers. Ms. Ticau also emphasized the meaning of civil society for a successful economic and societal development and co-operation in the Danube region. In this context, measures to foster health, social welfare, tourism and education will come to be focal topics.

The participating Danube-Networkers expressed their concern that the civil society should become involved more actively in the development of strategies for Danube region so that a stronger united civil society can emerge. In many short contributions and question, they expecially focused on the situation of the elderly in the Danube countries and the fact that the image of old age is still not positive enough of most of the countries. Furthermore, there are still not enough offers of further education for seniors. The task thus should be to enable lifelong learning and the use of ICT so that people can actively shape their society even in old age. They handed a statement, which had been signed by approx. 50 institution in the Danube countries at that time, concerning “Lifelong learning programmes for older adults as a societal necessity in the Danube Region” and the project proposal “University-based Lifelong Learning and Use of ICT, especially E-Learning, for Fostering Older Adults’ Social Participation in the Danube Region” to the Members of Parliament.

Furthermore, they called upon Ms. Ticau, President, and Mr Theurer, Vice-President of the “Danube Forum“ of the European Parliament in which 60 MEPs have joined, to introduce the topic „Older citizens in the Danube countries“ into the “Danube Forum”. It is of focal importance to deal with the various situations of the elderly, their provision necessities, need of learning and the possibilities of the transfer of competences.

The seniors were very eager to learn which actual measures and EU-programmes are taken. In this context, Ms. Ticau introduces the Calypso-Programme, a tourism programme of the EU which is being tried e.g. for Spain as a model project, but will possibly be applied in the Danube area as well.

The Danube-Networkers expressed their willingness to share on their expert knowledge in the area of older citizens in the Danube countries and stressed, in the light of the demographic changes, the importance of taking care of the elderly life situation and the dialogue between old and young. Since the “Danube-Forum“ recently invited representatives of the young generation to an expert-dialogue, they asked for a similar forum with representatives of the older generation.

As a conclusion, a group picture with host MEP Theurer was taken for which MEP Elisabeth Jeggle, who unfortunately had another engagement this afternoon, also briefly joined the group to greet the Danube-Networkers.