Hanness will visit Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, meeting with high-level politicians and stakeholders. He will also visit a very wide range of Danube Strategy projects. The trip is timed to coincide with the annual Danube Day celebrations in the region.
Before the visit, Hahn commented: "The 14 Danube countries are already benefitting from their intensified cooperation under the Strategy. Practically a project a week has been identified for implementation since the Strategy got off the ground, and new networks are developing among in the field of business, innovation, security and much more. I want to see for myself how the teams leading this pioneering initiative are advancing, and spur them on to accelerate implementation of measures that can help contribute to jobs and growth."
He also said Croatia was very committed to the Danube Strategy and that with its location, resources and upcoming EU accession, it could gain a lot through better cooperation with the neighbours in the Danube region.
He noted that Croatia was coordinating two key Strategy themes - competitiveness of companies and protection of biodiversity.