Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

for your invitation to meeting of the representatives of local and international associations in the context of the conference of ministers of the Danube Cooperation process on 13 and 14 July in Bucharest I thank you in the name of the City Ulm.

It is a great honour for Ulm, the first large city at the upper run of the Danube, to have the opportunity to participate in this conference. We first of all value this as an appreciation of our initiatives and impulses, to implement a new European partnership of the cities and regions alongside the river Danube.

• The cities  of Ulm and Neu-Ulm are organizing since 1998 the International Danube Festival with artists, ensembles, government representatives of the cities and guests from the Danube countries. This year, over 250.000 people participated the various arrangements.


• Since 2002 the donau.buero.ulm works successfully as a concrete Cooperation with the other cities and regions along the Danube. In the mean time many common projects in culture, science, education and economics have been developed and realized. Donau.buero.ulm has been founded in cooperation by the City Ulm and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Ulm is supported by the State of Baden-Württenberg. In Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania have been founded – with Ulm as pulse generator – more Danube Offices as a new European network.


• In June  2003 the European Danube Cities Conference have been arranged in Ulm, in witch context we agreed of project partnerships with the cities of Bratislava, Baja, Vukova, Novi Sad, Vidin and Tulcea. The Danube Cities Conference ought to become a permanent institution for the municipal  and regional  Cooperation along the Danube. The Danube Offices should be the basement of this cooperation. As a part of the International Danube Festival a further Conference has been taken place at 5 ^th June 2004. You will find the final report in your  hanouts.


• To express this new European Cooperation to the people of the Danube Countries, we proposed in a letter to the Embassies in Berlin, to arrange a collective Exhibition-and Presentation Project “Danube-Main Street/Stream of Europe”. The focus of this exhibition will be in the words of Gyorgy Konrad – the great Hungarian author – to make aware the countries and cities, cultures and landscapes and the economic chances of the Danube area to a greater European public. The positive feedback to this proposal encourages us, to realize this project. In 2006 the exhibition will start first in Brussels and then will be shown in all Capittol-Cities of the Danube Countries. The fundamental idea of this project is based on the actual development: the enlargement of the EU by the memberships of Hungary and Slovakia this year and the entry of Romania and Bulgaria 2007 will create a new regional axis connects the Danube area-ten countries, many cities and regions, very different peoples and cultures: as a great European Evolution of the future, the large river as a symbol for international understanding in the common European House.

We  hope the initiative of the Danube Offices have found your fully approval an support. Therefore we kindly ask the Ministerial  Conference to include these projects and institutions in their considerations. In particular we would be very pleased to give the patronage for the Exhibition –and Presentation Project “Danube-Major Street of Europe” in your hands. Finally we hope that you will recommend the European Commission to support this project.

Once more I thank you for the opportunity to present our intentions and concrete projects.