The Danube Region - Past, Present and Future Prospect of Transnational Cooperation as a Playground of the European Integration.

The study is focused on the forms of types of territorial and interregional collaboration in the CEE and South-Eastern Europe that effects the economic and social development of these regions and deepens the European integration of the area providing further impetus for the enlargement. The Danube region itself is situated between the CEE and South-Eastern Europe (The Balkans) where nations are linked by their borders, traditional political and economic relations separating by political conflicts as well as in the past and the present. The paper gives a historical overview on the (geo)political and territorial transformations and integrating attempts within the Danube region. The second section analyses the most important territorial co-operation programmes (e.g. CADSES) initiated by the EU in relation to enlargement and cohesion policy. The paper ends with the policy issues of the common problems and dangers of the stabilization and future integration of the Balkans region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]