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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.

(Press Release) VIENNA, 31 January – Residence of His Excellency the Ambassador of Germany to The Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations Vienna and to other International Organizations. As Hungary takes over the annual Presidency of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) today, incoming President Péter Kovács has set the main priorities for his term: finding ways to support the activities of the ICPDR, strengthening water security in the Danube Basin, implementing the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Flood Directive (FD), as well as further strengthening the integrated approach of ICPDR and the basin-wide exchange of experiences.