Ministers and high-level representatives responsible for water management from the Danube River Basin countries Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Montenegro, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and the European Commission have endorsed the ‘Danube Declaration’ at a ministerial meeting held on 16 February in Vienna, Austria and hosted by the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR).

“The Danube waters are shared by us all and therefore we also share the responsibility,” said ICPDR President Mitja Bricelj. “We meet to ensure that the resources of the Danube Basin are managed in an environmentally sustainable manner.”

The Danube River Basin Management Plan outlines concrete measures to be implemented by the year 2015 to improve the environmental condition of the Danube and its tributaries. These include the reduction of organic and nutrient pollution stemming from settlements and agriculture, stopping negative effects of man-made changes to the river, for example through the construction of fish-passes, the introduction of phosphate-free detergents in all markets and effective risk management of accidental pollution. Measures to protect and reconnect wetlands will also be taken. The plan addresses key requirements of the European Union Water Framework Directive.

Flood action plans for the 17 sub-basins in the Danube catchment area were also adopted at the ministerial meeting. These sub-basin plans, which have been developed in the framework of the ICPDR Action Programme for Sustainable Flood Prevention, contain hundreds of concrete measures including re-naturalization of wetlands, creation of natural flood barriers, upgrading of dykes and improvement of alarm and forecasting systems. The Danube countries will take these actions to protect their populations from floods and to mitigate flood damage and losses, such as those caused in the years 2002, 2005 and 2006.

Winner of the Danube Art Master Competition 2009 Vasyl Vataman from Ukraine addressed the Ministerial Meeting with the “Message from the youth of the Danube River Basin”.