News Archive

27 September 2009 - Executive Secretary of the ICPDR, Philip Weller, explained today his experience in river management in the Danube River Basin at the AER Summer School being held in the Universidad Politécnica of Valencia (Spain).

The joint responsibility for the river’s water and resources by all countries and communities is the focus of the 6th Danube Day on 29 June. The highlight is the ICPDR Stakeholder Forum, which will be held on 29-30 June in Bratislava.
Interested stakeholders from sectors including...

4 May 2009 – Borealis, a leading provider of innovative, value-creating plastics solutions, has joined the Business Friends of the Danube partnership, an initiative to protect the resources and ecosystems of Europe’s second longest river, the Danube.
The Business Friends of the...

27 January 2009 - Slovakia takes over the Presidency of the ICPDR for the year 2009 at a ceremony held today. Olga Srsnova, General Director of the Division of Waters and Energy Sources at the Slovak Ministry of Environment will serve as President and guide the activities of the ICPDR. “During...

13 October 2008 - Two Slovak children have won the ‘International Danube Art Master 2008’ competition. The International Master is selected from the winners of the national ‘Danube Art Master’ competitions in 14 Danube Basin countries.

10 December 2008 – Three photographers have won the ‘IFN Master Photographer 2008’ titles of honour in the IFN Photo Championship 2008 competition, entitled “The Danube and its Tributaries”.

The ICPDR has been included in a stunning new publication entitled `River Journeys´. The book recognises the founders and winners from ten years of the `Thiess Riverprize´.

On 24 September 2008, a “Declaration concerning common approaches to water management, flood protection, hydropower utilization and nature and biodiversity conservation in the Drava River Basin” was adopted by Participants at the “Drava River Vision Symposium” in Maribor, Slovenia.

Vienna, 2 June 2008 – Can the Danube still be saved? With the presentation of the Business Friends of the ICPDR responded with a “clear yes” to this specific question. Renowned Austrian and international companies agreed to support the ICDPR to protect the vulnerable Danube . In the...

Vienna,  10 March 2008 - The first international system for forecasting Danube floods and providing an early flood warning was launched today by the ICPDR and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission.
The new system will provide the national authorities of countries...

Vienna, 11 March 2008 - The first-ever `Joint Statement on Guiding Principles for the Development of Inland Navigation and Environmental Protection in the Danube River Basin´ was launched today. The interdisciplinary process to create the Joint Statement was led by the ICPDR, the Danube...

Vienna, 21 January 2008 – Serbia today took over the Presidency of the ICPDR for the year 2008. The handover was made during an official ceremony hosted by the outgoing Presidency, Romania, at the premises of the Permanent Mission of Romania in Vienna, Austria. The Minister for Environmental...

Vienna, 9 November 2007 – Four Hungarian children have won the ‘International Danube Art Master 2007’ competition, announced Philip Welller, Executive Secretary of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) today. Mr. Weller made the announcement at the...

August 2007 - An ICPDR and ISRBC delegation has visited Mississippi River Commission

Vienna, 28 September 2007 - The Joint Danube Survey 2 today concluded its river research expedition for 2007, and reached its final stop in Tulcea, Romania.

The survey was launched mid-August from Regensburg, Germany with three ships that travelled down the entire length (2,375 km)...

Vienna, 4 September 2007 - The ICPDR has won the Australian $300,000 (approx. 180,000 Euro) International Thiess Riverprize 2007 for excellence in water management in the Danube River Basin. The announcement was made today, in Brisbane, Australia, during a special award ceremony at the 10th...

VIENNA, 31 July - The groundbreaking cooperation on integrated river basin management, led by the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) has been nominated as a finalist in the prestigious EUR 189,000 International Thiess Riverprize. The cooperation in...

25 June 2007 - The rich and varied history and traditions of the countries sharing the Danube River Basin will be at the heart of festivities marking the fourth annual International Danube Day (June 29).

Under the theme, ‘Celebrating Danube Cultures’, a large...

25 April 2007 - A one-year process began today to reach agreement on how to maintain and develop inland waterway transport on the Danube River without damaging the environment.
The joint initiative is being organized under the leadership of the ICPDR in cooperation with the Danube...

23 February 2007 - The European Commission and Environment Ministers from all countries of the Danube River Basin and Black Sea region adopted a Declaration on the Enhancement of Cooperation during a High Level Meeting in Bucharest, Romania. The Declaration recognizes the important values of the...

19 January 2007 - Romania will take over the Presidency of the ICPDR for the year 2007, on Monday, 22 January. The handover will take place at an official ceremony hosted by the outgoing Presidency, Moldova, at the Palais Pallavicini in Vienna, Austria, at 1700 hours.
State Secretary of...

On Feb. 23, 2007 Ministers of the Danube and Black Sea countries will take an ambitious step towards the protection of the Danube River Basin and Black Sea region ecosystems. The European Commission and the federal ministers of 16 countries will adopt a declaration in which they jointly confirm...

VIENNA, 11 December – “Two young Romanians have won the ‘International Danube Art Master 2006’ competition, for their creation titled ‘The Danube Flows Through Us’’, announced Philip Weller, Executive Secretary of the ICPDR today. Mr. Weller made the announcement at the Annual...

VIENNA, 21 April 2006 - International efforts to prevent and reduce flood impacts in the Danube River Basin will be strengthened by the end of the year by the ICPDR.
“The floods currently ravaging countries in the Danube Basin, as in 2002 and 2005, are again providing lessons that...

Countries along the Danube river will join in a wide range of activities to commemorate “Danube Day”, which is celebrated annually on 29 June. The activities include clean-up operations, rivers tours and exhibitions and are part of a major awareness-raising effort.

A series of events have been planned for the celebration of the third Danube Day, 29 June, to commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the Danube River Protection Convention in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1994.

Danube Day 2006 follows the slogan DANUBE:RIVER OF LIFE. 

VIENNA, 21 April 2006 - International efforts to prevent and reduce flood impacts in the Danube River Basin will be strengthened by the end of the year by the ICPDR.
“The floods currently ravaging countries in the Danube Basin, as in 2002 and 2005, are again providing lessons that...

ICPDR President 2005 István Őri announced the winner of the International Danube Art Master Competition in Budapest:
A German School (6 A, Secondary School "Auf der Schanz") wins the competition, which made part of the Danube Day celebrations 2005. As in 2004, this competition was carried...

15 year-old Vasyl Vataman from Ukraine has won the International Danube Art Master 2009 Competition. The winning submission was created shows a miniaturist recreation of the Danube ecosystem, presents the strip of the Danube that is familiar to the artist: his village cut in half by the...

30 October 2009 - International Black Sea Action Day will be celebrated on October 30-31 in Samsun, Turkey, with activities jointly organized by the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forest and the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (Black Sea Commission). Within...

As part of its commitment to the promotion of inland waterway transport, PLATINA held its second workshop to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue on waterway management. The workshop was organised  by the ICPDR in Ruse (Bulgaria) on September 15-16.

VIENNA, 14 January – Slovenia takes over the Presidency of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) for the year 2010 at a ceremony held at the Permanent Mission of Slovakia to the United Nations (Vienna) today.

The Danube River Basin Management Plan will guide the way to achieving at least good status for all waters of the Danube River Basin. The current plan covers...

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...

ZAGREB, March 10 - High-level officials of the ISRBC, ICPDR, DC, European Commission, state bodies and public institutions, dealing with navigation, environmental protection and sustainable development issues, from the Danube River Basin, as well as representatives of non-governmental...

A Funder's Consultation Meeting on the financing of measures under the Danube Joint Programme of Measures, convened by the ICPDR and the Government of the Republic of Serbia, has taken place in Belgrade 18-19 May.

This summer the Danube basin was repeatedly deluged by torrential rains causing massive floods. Across the basin people were forced from their homes, and many houses collapsed or were damaged due to floods or landslides after flood events. The ICPDR is actively working on flood management...

Vienna, 25 June – 81 million people in all Danube countries are invited to ‘Get Active for the Rivers’ on 29 June as part of the celebrations for the 7th annual Danube Day.

The main goal of this year’s celebration is to engage people and to emphasize the connections...

PLATINA (the Platform for the implementation of Naiades) has launched an innovative manual presenting good practises in sustainable waterway planning.

Please have a look!

24 September 2010 - Two Serbian children have won the ‘International Danube Art Master 2010’ competition. The International Master is selected from the winners of the national ‘Danube Art Master’ competitions in 14 Danube Basin countries. 

On November 4, the European Commission published a proposed regulation, which will uniformly limit phosphorous containing compounds in laundry detergents to 0.5 percent of weight as of January 2013.

Perth, 12 October - The River Thamse was selected as the winner  of the world’s largest environmental prize in 2010. It was presented to the Environment Agency at the Riversymposium in Perth. The Danube had won the prestigous prize in 2007.

The redsludge accident of October 4 has generated a world-wide interest in the area of Ajka in Western Hungary. Since then, media attention has ceased. This article aims to provide an English summary of the measures that were taken to manage the accident since October 20.

The Third Meeting on the follow-up of the "Joint Statement on Inland Navigation and Environmental Protection in the Danube River Basin" will take place in Vienna, Austria on 5 and 6 April 2011.

Environmental aspects of the danube strategy and pushing sub-basin management are among the top priorities of the 2011 presidency

The 2nd of February is the World Wetlands Day. The ICDPR takes this occasion to highlight its ongoing efforts to protect, restore and create new wetlands in the Danube River Basin.

There are five job openings coming up at the ICPDR permanent secretariat. Below you find the announcements of these job openings and the Terms of Reference for each position. Deadline for all applications is the 20th of October.

The 22nd of March is World Water Day – declared as such at the “UN Conference on Environment and Development” in Rio de Janeiro (“Earth Summit”) in 1992. Since then, World Water Day has developed to a global event that contributes significantly towards raising awareness for water...

Floods are a major problem in the Danube River Basin. In order to manage floods and to deal with their economic and environmental consequences, Danube River Basin countries started the transnational Danube FLOODRISK Project. This project now needs your support: It is calling stakeholders to...

At the ICPDR countries and secretariat, the planning for this year’s celebration of Danube Day on June 29 is already in full gear. The slogan “Get active for the rivers” will be the kept as a motto for 2011, as it convinced the organizers. Actvity and rivers are the key themes that are...

After the 2nd Joint Statement Meeting held in Zagreb last year, the ICPDR Secretariat has the pleasure to welcome the participants for the 3rd Joint Statement Meeting on Inland Navigation and Environmental Sustainability on 5th and 6th April 2011 in Vienna.

On 11 April 2011, the five Tisza River Basin countries Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine entered a new stage in joint water management to ensure good water quality. In the course of a Ministerial Meeting held in Uzhgorod (Ukraine), a management plan was signed that commits the...

In order to protect endangered sturgeon species, Bulgaria decided to ban sturgeon fishing in May 2011. Romania was the first country to implement a sturgeon fishing ban in the Danube in 2006 and is now followed by its southern neighbour.

The ICPDR held the 9th Standing Working Group Meeting on the 16th and 17th of June in Kyiv. Key-issues discussed circled around the EU Danube Strategy.

On the occasion of the Ministerial Meeting in Uzhgorod in April 2011, the ministers of Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia expressed their support to through five stone plates at the source of the Tisza River. These memorial plates will be introduced in the frame of the Danube/Tisza...

29 June 2011 – Danube Day 2011 will be celebrated on the 29th of June and calls on people of the 14 countries to get active in protecting water resources. This year, the annual Danube Day will receive a lot of attention, as it coincides with the adoption of the European Union (EU) Danube...

The “World Water Week” is taking place in Stockholm, Sweden, from August 21 to 27. The event, which is held annually since 1991, is organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).

A detailed analysis and assessment of the Danube Delta will be held within the project "Joint environmental monitoring, assessment and exchange of information for integrated management of the Danube delta region" from 26 September until l 7 October 2011.

In January 2011, Ukraine took over the presidency of the ICPDR. In this article, President Mykola Melenevskyi gives an overview on his agenda and the key issues for his presidency.

The Seventh “Environment for Europe” Ministerial Conference is scheduled to take place in Astana (Kazakhstan) from 21 to 23 September 2011. The Conference is being prepared in accordance with the provisions of Reform Plan of the “Environment for Europe” process.

The Sixth GEF Biennial International Waters Conference, as with prior IW Conferences, was a learning event for the GEF IW focal area held in the Croatian town of Dubrovnik from the 17th to the 21st of October. The general objective of the conference is to facilitate cross-sectoral and...

The Platina workshop and conference on “Good practices in sustainable waterway planning” will be held in Brussels on 14 and 15 November – with two very distinguished keynote speakers. The Director General of DG Environment Mr Karl Friedrich Falkenberg and the Director General of DG Move Mr...

The IWA Specialist Groundwater Conference was held in Belgrade from 8 to 10 September 2011. This Conference was a continuation of the activities of the same organizers who in 2007 hosted the highly successful regional conference on Groundwater Management in the Danube River Basin and other...