News & Media

The European Commission proposes to cut the use of chemical pesticides in half by 2030, one of the flagship legislative proposals to follow the Biodiversity and Farm to Fork Strategies. The new rules on chemical pesticides will reduce the environmental footprint of the EU's food system, protect the health and well-being of citizens and agricultural workers, and help mitigate the pesticide use-related economic losses.

As the climate crisis worsens, severe droughts devastate European landscapes. According to the data published by the European Drought Observatory, more than 60% of land in the European Union and United Kingdom – an area nearly the same size as India (!) – is now affected by drought conditions. The Danube River Basin and the Danube itself have been affected by serious droughts in the past, e.g., in 2003, 2015, and now again one of the most feared natural phenomenon has gripped much of the Danube River Basin.

The new Bathing Water Report published at the beginning of June by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission (EC) reveals that the quality of Europe’s bathing waters has improved dramatically in recent decades. According to European Union standards that classify the waters as “excellent”, “good”, “sufficient” or “poor”, almost 85% of the European bathing sites now ranks as “excellent”.

VIENNA, 22 March – World Water Day 2022 is focusing on groundwater and making the invisible visible.

The ICPDR is happy to continue our workshop series jointly organised with the World Bank's Danube Water Program, with a forthcoming event discussing sustainable financing of wastewater management with experts from and beyond the Danube River Basin to be held on 3rd February 2022.

The ICPDR has developed a recommendation paper on wastewater management, communicating the challenges, needs and potential solutions to wastewater management in the Danube River Basin.

VIENNA – 29 April 2021. Coordinated with the ICPDR, many hundreds of experts in the countries of the Danube River Basin as well as other actors engaged in the fourth Joint Danube Survey – JDS4 – in 2019 and 2020. The final results have now been published and made available to the public and scientific communities online.

VIENNA, 22 March 2021 – World Water Day 2021 is focusing on valuing water and celebrating this precious resource we work to protect.

On 19-20th January 2021, the ICPDR co-hosted an online workshop on rural wastewater management with the World Bank and the Danube Water Program.

On Thursday 12 December 2019, We Pass – an EU-funded project with the ICPDR aiming to facilitate fish migration and habitat conservation in the Danube River Basin – held its first stakeholder workshop on the banks of the Danube River in Vienna, Austria.