The Hungarian EU presidency is addressing the challenges of a fragmented EU research area, a series of flagship priorities aimed at overcoming innovation gaps, freshwater related issues being one of them.
High Level conference "Partnering for the Future'', organized under the auspices of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU on July 4th in Brussels introduced the priorities and ambitions of the Hungarian EU presidency, among them, the enhancement of the BIOEAST Initiative and community. Agriculture and Research Ministries from the BIOEAST macro-region, have signed the declaration for joint research and innovation partnerships focusing on agriculture, freshwater and forestry.
Barbara Botos, Hungarian Ambassador-at-Large for Climate, referred to freshwater as a link for the whole EU, there’s a lot of untapped potential and the question is how to unlock it with EU support and an EU-wide partnership financing a network of projects in our macroregion. Barbara Botos said: “Within the EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters we only have the Danube Lighthouse representing only a portion of the freshwater issues. We need way more than that.”
Martin Kováč, Climate Club, former state secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic and Principal Advisor at Water Holistic, urged a shift from the discussion about material cycle to bioeconomy cycles. He emphasized that soil - water - climate NEXUS where carbon, water, nutrition and energy cycles are so tightly interlinked while monitoring the impact of their interaction is being neglected. The BIOEAST macro-region with the Danube river basin has a great potential to be a good practice for new generation of water management - water cycle management - and shift from sectoral to integrated planning with a 4D approach for the whole EU. Martin Kováč noted: “The BIOEAST macro-region can demonstrate on how to systematically revitalize soil, increase rain water retention capacity of soil and landscape structures, prevent forest fires and reduce the surface temperature of the land.”
“Water is the driving force of all nature.” - Leonardo Da Vinci
Authors:
Anastasia Perouli, Marie Kubáňková
BIOEAST HUB ČR, BIOEAST Thematic Working Group Fresh Water Based Bioeconomy