Common Initiatives

European Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR)

With the establishment of the EUSDR, Upper Austria could strengthen its contacts with Eastern and Southeastern Europe; the state is active in the fields of tourism, knowledge society, people & qualification, institutional capacities and especially in the topic of competitiveness.
In cooperation with Baden-Württemberg, Upper Austria took the lead in the working group for cluster policy, founded in April 2012, and is thereby actively influencing the economic and cluster policy in all of the Danube Region. In this way, Upper Austria can transfer its successful model of cluster policy to Eastern and Southeastern Europe, and at the same time expand the network of the Upper Austrian economy.

Euroregion Danube-Vltava (EDM)

On June 30, 2012, the EDM as a cross-border association of the Bavarian districts of Lower Bavaria and Upper Palatinate (including the county of Altötting), the Czech districts of Southern Bohemia, Pilsen, and Vysočina as well as the Wald- and Mostviertel and Upper Austria was kicked of with the signing of the statutes.
By their trilateral cooperation, the partner regions want to shape the Euroregion Danube-Vltava as a region with a future for the people, an attractive living and working environment in the middle of four metropolitan areas, a strong partner of European policy, and a learning and dynamic region.
To achieve these aims, seven knowledge platforms were established where experts from all partner regions work on the content orientation of the Euroregion and develop approaches for successful implementation projects.

European GMO-Free Regions Network

The network was founded by Tuscany and Upper Austria in November 2003. By now 57 regions from Austria (all nine states), France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany and Croatia are members.
During the 8th Conference of the Network on November 23rd 2010 in Vienna, the Assembly elected unanimously Marche Region (Italy) as the new President of the Network. Upper Austria has the Vice-Presidency. 
The network promotes freedom of genetically modified (GM) technology and the regional co or self-determination.

Fedarene

Fedarene is a network of regional and local organisations in the field of energy efficiency and environmental technology, a platform for best practice, initiator of suggestions etc. with today 45 members from 17 European states. Upper Austria is represented in the network by the Upper Austrian Energy Saving Agency (OÖ. Energiesparverband).

Alliance of the economically strong regions of Europe

with a high amount of energy-intensive industrial plants

The "Alliance of energy-intensive EU-regions" was founded in 2008 by Upper Austria and North Rhine-Westphalia and consists now of eleven member regions from Austria, Germany and the Netherlands.
Purposes and demands of the alliance are the acknowledgement of the current goals of climate control, coherency, fairness, reliable conditions and planning security, rapid basis of decision making, climate protection as a global challenge, and the exclusion of small facilities from the system of emission trading.