Working Community of the Danube Regions presented SoPro at the 3rd Annual Meeting of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region at the Vienna Town Hall

Approx. 1,200 guests from all over Europe participated in the 3rd Annual Meeting of the EU-Strategy for the Danube Region at the Vienna Town Hall. The Sustainability Working Group of the Working Community of the Danube Region presented the practical experience stand "Common Sustainable Economic Activities – under the umbrella of the Working Community of the Danube Regions". A large number of experts and representatives of high politics gathered information about current projects of the "SONDAR" sustainability network in the Danube region.

EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn, Minister for European Affairs Peter Friedrich from Baden-Wuerttemberg and many more important players of the Danube region also participated in creating the soil colour painting of the Danube regions. Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sebastian Kurz personally got informed about the international activities of the project "Painting with the Colours of the Earth".

The following practical examples of transnational cooperation in socio-oecological production were presented: Painting with the Colours of the Earth, handicap tailor's, waste container recycling and second life of computers.

Within the frame of this meeting, also a workshop took place on the following topics:

• Peter de Martin reported about priorities and activities of the Working Community of the Danube Regions
  Working Community of the Danube Regions short information GE
  Working Community of the Danube Regions short information EN
  
  
• Erwin Szlezak reported on "SONDAR - Sustainable Operations Network in the Danube Region" – social added value, sustainable economic activities and environmental consciousness – download presentation
  
  
  
• "SoPro - Socio-oecological Production: Working together for sustainable economy" - Franz Rybaczek and Scabolcs Hollósi from the SoPro innovation platform showed the current state of this project and the relevance of the scheduled foundation of the "SoPro Innovation Agency" as a contribution towards social and economic innovation in the Danube region 
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• János Kondor from the Federation of Employers and Industry of the Hungarian administrative region of Vas held a speech about the achievements of SoPro in integrating persons with impairments into the work process and about the plans of the Hungarian economic players to push the methods of SoPro on a national scale.

We are pleased and grateful for the many excellent talks and the great interest in activities of the Working Community of the Danube Regions and the topics presented within the frame of the Annual Forum. Now we expect with excitement the future opportunities of cooperation and activities, and we invite all persons interested to cooperate with the SONDAR sustainability network.

Photos ©: BIENE Association