Opening the event, Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said that her country was organising the conference as a partner country within the Danube Strategy which was approved by EU foreign ministers on 13 April in Luxembourg. The document is to adopted by the European Council by June.
Kosor said it was important that activities stipulated by the strategy were not restricted to EU member states, and pledged Croatia's full engagement in projects envisaged by the strategy.
"The Danube River is our bond and opportunity to reaffirm our common Danubian identity," the Croatian premier said adding that Croatia treated the reconstruction of the Port of Vukovar, the construction of the multi-purpose Danube-Sava canal and removal of mines from the banks of those two rivers as some of its priorities.
After the beginning of the conference, Kosor held talks with the European Commissioner for regional policy, Johannes Hahn.
He said that the EU should see to it that nonmembers of the bloc could be provided with all the possible assistance.
The Danube Strategy covers a fifth of the EU, or about 100 million people in 14 countries, of which eight are member states (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania) and six are non-EU countries (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Ukraine and Moldova).
The strategy is based on a macro-regional approach and focuses on four main pillars: connecting the Danube region, protecting its environment, building prosperity, and strengthening the region's institutional capacity.