Smart Specialization in the Danube Region, Building Trust through Communities of Practice

The Danube region covers from upstream till downstream regions of 9 EU countries, (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia) and 5 non-EU countries ( Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Ukraine and Moldova). From the social and economic point of view they can be divided into highly developed economies, medium developed and less developed. The macro region of the Danube is one of the EU macro-regions subject to a special strategy developed by European Commission and comprises both EU and non EU member states. Compared with other macroeconomic regions within EU, this region is facing greater economic disparities which may be consider as an obstacle for cohesion policy and for the successful development of the region. In order to overcome these obstacles the region has to cope with issues like smart specialization, an essential process for the overall competitiveness of any region. But can regions with high economic, social and cultural disparities like this one be successful in smart specialization processes and how? This paper is bringing some new approaches on this issue, to be further analyzed and considered.