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Bucharest, 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 region, historical damage it has undergone and recent signs of environmental recovery as a result of cooperative actions.

daNUbs was a mulitnational EU research project carried out under the leadership of the Technical University of Vienna. The results from this project include estimates of nutrient inputs into the river network (MONERIS), as well as an assessment of the loads of nitrogen, phosphorus and silica transported via the river network. These results indicate that the nutrient status in the Black Sea has significantly improved since the 1980s.

The DABLAS (Danube - Black Sea) Task Force is a successful example of providing a platform between International Funding Institutions, donors and beneficiaries to support cooperation and to leverage investment projects for the protection of water and water-related ecosystems of the Danube and Black Sea.

The ecological state of the coastal waters of the Western Black Sea has improved significantly since the late 1980s and early 1990s. These improvements are based on reduced nutrient inputs which have led to reduced eutrophication and fewer algal blooms, ecovery of animal populations on the seaflor and an improved regeneration of macrophytes.

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.