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2004 will in many ways be a special year for the ICPDR and the Danube
River Region. On June 29, we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the
signing of the Danube River Protection Convention. The events planned
for that occasion will allow us to review our past achievements and remind
ourselves of the challenges that still lie ahead. At the same time, they
will mark the launching of Danube Day, which will hopefully become an
established annual event.
At the beginning of May, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia
will officially join the European Union. This event will redefine the
political boundaries within the Danube Region by including a total of
six Danube countries in the EU family and will give EU legislation a much
greater impact on the activities of the ICPDR than the authors of the
Danube Convention could ever have imagined. The Danube River Basin countries
were quick in recognizing the benefits of EU legislative tools for achieving
the goals of the Convention and committed themselves to fulfilling the
requirements of the Water Framework Directive, which currently plays the
guiding role in the work of the ICPDR. By doing so they provided leadership
for other basins; they showed that integrated river basin management can
work despite differing national legislation and economic circumstances.
An important milestone in our concerted efforts to make integrated river
basin management work will be the presentation of the first Danube River
Basin Plan to the European Commission at a Ministerial Meeting planned
for December 2004.
In addition to the Water Framework Directive, other pieces of EU legislation
have played an important role in assisting countries in meeting their
commitments under the Convention. Some of them are highlighted in this
issue of Danube Watch, including the Industrial Pollution Prevention and
Control (IPPC) Directive, and SEVESO II Directive.
It is, of course, a coincidence, but a very fitting one, that in this
year of the EU enlargement the Presidency of the ICPDR is taken over by
Catherine Day, the Director General for Environment at the European Commission.
As outgoing President Fritz Holzwarth has pointed out, the personal involvement
of Catherine Day in the ICPDR is a “clear political signal from
the European Commission of the importance of the work of the ICPDR.”
In conclusion, I would like to express ICPDR's gratitude for the ongoing
support it has received from UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project, including
the support for this issue of Danube Watch. I hope you enjoy this issue
of Danube Watch and look forward to further success stories being reported
as the ICPDR works to achieve sustainable and equitable water management
in the Danube River Basin.
Philip Weller, ICPDR
Executive Secretary
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