Front row: Ibro Cengić, Bosnia & Herzogovina; Ivana Dulić-Marković, Serbia & Montenegro; Liliana Bara, Romania; Catherine Day, ICPDR President 2004; Helmut Kukacka, Austria; Henriette Berg, Germany Back row: Constantin Mihailescu, Moldova; Asen Lichev, Bulgaria; Peter Stanko, Slovakia; Mitja Bricelj, Slovenia; Krzysztof Szamalek, Poland; Kálmán Mizsei, UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS; István Őri, Hungary; Philip Weller, Executive Secretary ICPDR; Petar Cobankoviċ, Croatia.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Danube River Protection Convention means that at long last the Danube family of nations is together with an uninterrupted line of cooperation from the Black Forest to the Black Sea.”
Ibro Cengic, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Actions of government alone will not bring improved water quality to the Danube – every one of us can do something to protect the ecosystem that supports us.”
Catherine Day, ICPDR President 2004

Ten years is a relatively small milestone to the Danube River Basin. To the people who live in the basin, however, much has changed in the last ten years. Since the Danube River Protection was signed in Sofia in 1994, the European Union has expanded, several countries in the Danube Basin have been reorganised politically, and the Danube is in better shape ecologically. All Danube countries have reduced pollution, and have learned to take better care of the precious Danube wetlands.

For the first time in the history of the Danube River Protection Convention, Ministers responsible for water resource management in the Danube River Basin gathered in Vienna on December 13 for the ICPDR Ministerial Meeting. Ministers and representatives from all Danube Basin countries were in attendance, as well as NGOs and observers to the convention. The meeting marked the ten-year anniversary of the sign-ing of the Danube River Protection Convention, and provided an opportunity to look back at the last ten years in Danube history and to celebrate the successes achieved and identify the strategies and actions necessary to undertake for the next ten years.

Ten years of success.
The meeting opened with a short film on the Danube River Basin and the work the ICPDR has done to protect this delicate region. In a short time, the ICPDR has matured into an effective forum for coordination and cooperation and has helped the countries of the Danube basin work towards sustainable water resources management.

This message was reinforced by Catherine Day’s opening remarks about the achievements of the ICPDR in the ten years since the Danube River Protection Convention’s signing. She highlighted several outstanding achievements of the last ten years, including the TransNational Monitoring Network, the Accident Emergency Warning System and the Five-Year Joint Action Plan necessary. She also singled out the first international Danube Day, celebrated June 29 across the entire basin: “It is important that we get people — not just politicians and officials — to play their part in protecting the Danube.”

Making history.
The Ministerial Meeting provided many opportunities for decision-makers to continue to move forward in their objectives. Meeting participants celebrated the announcement of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s ratification of the Danube River Protection Convention, witnessed the signing the Danube Declaration and the Tisza River Basin Agreement, and discussed the Roof Report 2004 and Flood Action Programme. The Ministerial Meeting also served as the scene for the crowning of the ‘International Danube Art Master’, part of 13-country school competition carried out as part of the first international Danube Day celebrated June 29 throughout the Basin.

A complete Danube family.
The delegation from Bosnia and Herzegovina announced at the beginning of the meeting that their country had recently adopted the ratification instrument to join the Danube River Protection Convention, the last of the 13 signatory members to ratify the convention.

Catherine Day, ICDPR President 2004, said she was pleased that the “circle is complete and all the Dan-ube Basin countries are together”. One of her original goals when her presidency started was to continue a dialogue with the Balkan countries, a target she achieved with her trip in June to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro. Day congratulated her colleagues from Bosnia and Herzegovina for getting through the very ambitious ratification process and said that she was glad to be able to celebrate the ratification together.

All ministers echoed Day’s celebratory sentiment on the ratification of Bosnia and Herzegovina. “I am so glad we could formally recognise the ratification today,” said Ibro Cengic on behalf of Dragan Doko, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relation. “Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Danube River Protection Convention means that at long last the Danube family of nations is together with an uninterrupted line of cooperation from the Black Forest to the Black Sea.”

ICPDR President 2004 Catherine Day receives an NGO Declaration promoting ecologically sustainable navigation on the Danube, outside the meeting venue.

A declaration from the heart.
A substantial amount of time at the meeting was set aside to evaluate and redirect the future efforts of the ICPDR. The ministers and representatives of all Danube countries endorsed a Danube Declaration that expressed their commitment to reinforce transboundary cooperation on sustainable water resource management within the Danube region further.The declaration, called ‘The Danube Basin – Rivers in the Heart of Europe’, stressed the commitment of all countries to cooperate in identifying and implementing solutions for integrated and sustainable water resource management in the Danube River Basin.

The declaration affirmed the commitment to promoting the sustainable and balanced use of water resources in the Danube Basin. The declaration also recognises the work of partners in helping ICPDR achieve its goals, including donors and financial institutions, the UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project, the Commission for the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution, the Danube—Black Sea Taskforce, and the official observers of the ICPDR.

Setting targets for the river.
The declaration acknowledged achievements from the last ten years, but also addressed continuing concerns for the region and set goals and objectives for the next ten years. Recognising the shared responsibility necessary for the future, the declaration commits to meeting key objectives of the Danube River Protection Convention through implementing the EU Water Framework Directive, developing an internationally coordinated river basin management plan for the Danube basin by 2009, and taking coordinated steps to reduce risks from floods.

State Secretary Helmut Kukacka of the Austrian Ministry of Transport and Technology commended the “outstanding spirit of cooperation”, and called the declaration “remarkable, not only for the plans and objectives it set forth, but also for how little time it has taken to develop”.

Catherine Day agreed with Kukacka, and stressed that it was “vital to agree on the Danube Declaration today in order to set out a vision and a concept for the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River to tackle the challenges ahead”.

Catherine Day, ICPDR President 2004, called the meeting timely, not just for marking the ten-year anniversary of the Danube River Protection Convention, but also for the enlargement of the European Union, which moved the Danube region closer to the heart of Europe.

Sub-basin cooperation.
An important issue of discussions at the meeting was the successful cooperation of the ICPDR with the sub-basin initiatives in the Sava and Tisza River Basins. The Tisza River Basin Agreement specifies ad-ditional commitments to coordinate water quality and flood risk management in the Tisza River Basin, the Danube’s largest tributary. The agreement was signed by Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia and Ukraine.

Ivana Dulić-Marković, from Serbia and Montenegro, praised the agreement, saying “This agreement marks a significant accomplishment for all of us in the Tisza Basin, and the entire basin will benefit as this brings us one step closer to implementing the EU Water Framework Directive.”

Tools for the future.
At the end of 2004, the Danube Basin countries completed the first important milestone in fulfilling the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive, the Roof Report 2004. The completion of the Danube Basin Analysis, or Roof Report 2004, fulfils one of the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive. The report describes the main environmental problems in the Danube River Basin and, based on this report, a cost-effective programme of measures will be developed in order to ensure that the objectives of the EU Water Framework Directive will be met. This programme of measures will be included in the Dan-ube River Basin Management Plan to be completed in 2009.

The Action Programme for Sustainable Flood Protection in the Danube River Basin was also adopted at the meeting. The programme aims at achieving a long-term and sustainable approach for managing conservation and the improvement of water-related ecosystems.

Challenges ahead.
ICPDR President Catherine Day noted that the work of the ICPDR is far from complete. She identified several urgent problems still facing the Danube, including pollution loads, the risk of accidents and floods, and the continuing degradation of water systems.

“Taking into account the important and relevant tasks of the ICPDR, the further consolidation of this institution is necessary in order to allow an adequate co-ordination of the tasks which have to be solved,” said Liliana Bara, State Secretary of Romania. “We express our availability for total cooperation and also our hope that, through our common efforts, we will be able to benefit from clean and healthy environment, both for us and the future generations.”

An optimistic future.
Day summed up the spirit of the meeting by remarking that the work of the ICPDR was not completed. Moreover, she added, “the actions of government alone will not bring improved water quality and environmental conditions to the Danube…every one of us can do something to protect the ecosystem that supports us. Industry, farmers, municipalities, people of all ages, young and old, should join in and act in ways that preserve and restore, where necessary, our Danube River ecosystem.”

Kirstie Shepherd
is a freelance journalist living in Vienna
and has called the Danube River Basin home since 2000.

Next Article: Picturing a clean Danube