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The ICPDR Ministerial Meeting 2004 was the first Meeting of the Parties to the Danube River Protection Convention. The Meeting was happeing in the year of the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Danube River Protection Convention. The meeting aimed to highlight the success achived and to get ready for the challanges to come.

The Environmental Programme for the Danube River Basin (EPDRB) was initiated in 1991 (Bulgaria) based on ongoing activities to strengthen the international cooperation along the Danube river, aiming to enhance environmental quality of the river basin. The EPDRB, especially through its Strategic Action Plan, supported also the development of the Danube River Protection Convention.

The Pollution Reduction Programme was prepared in the frame of the UNDP/GEF assistance to the Danube Programme Coordination Unit. The PRP presents a group of projects and measures that respond to identified pollution and transboundary effects in the Danube River Basin and the Black Sea. Projects for pollution reduction are presented for identified sub-basin areas and for significant impact areas (SIA).

The UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project was launched to reinforce regional cooperation of the Danube countries. It supported the development of national policies and legislation and the definition of priority actions for pollution control. This all to ensure a common approach to the protection of international waters, sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity.

The Joint Action Programme of the ICPDR outlined the specific steps that were agreed to be taken over the period 2001-2005 to achieve the environmental objectives outlined in the Danube River Protection Convention including many large-scale measures to reduce water pollution, to promote nature conservation, to restore ecosystems, and to safeguard the long-term sustainable management of the environment.

Three sub-basins of the Danube are partly located in Ukraine - the Tisza, Prut and Siret basins, as well as part of the Danube Delta. Furthermore, 2.7 million people live in the Ukrainian part of the Danube Basin, which is 3.3% of the total Danube Basin District. Ukraine has been a Signatory State to the Danube River Protection Convention since 1994. The Convention was ratified by the Ukrainian Parliament in 2002.

As both the largest remaining natural wetland and second largest river delta in Europe, the Danube Delta is one of the continent's most valuable habitats for wetland wildlife. Pollution and discharge manipulation from upstream has a huge effect on this area of high biodiversity, plus the delta continues to change ecologically itself – the Danube Delta spreads seaward at a rate of 10 to 25 metres every year.

Covering an area of 157,186 km², the Tisza River Basin is the largest sub-basin of the Danube River Basin. The Tisza River is the longest tributary of the Danube (966 km), and second largest in terms of flow after the Sava. The countries of the Tisza Basin (Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia) agreed to close transboundary co-operation, aiming to achieve integrated water resources management of the Basin.