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The ICPDR applauds the recent signing of the"goMURra" Declaration by Austrian Water Minister Norbert Totschnig and Slovenian Minister for Natural Resources Jože Novak. The declaration, signed on 11 November 2025 at the UNESCO 5-Country Biosphere Reserve, marks a significant step forward in transboundary water management and ecological restoration in the Danube River Basin.

The 23rd Standing Working Group (StWG) meeting of the ICPDR took place 17-18 June 2025 in Postojna, Slovenia, gathering representatives from across the Danube River Basin to review progress and align on next steps.

Rivers are a natural resource that have been a focal point of transboundary governance for centuries. It is challenging to manage them for the benefit of riparian communities – especially if they are transboundary. This requires the development of a water infrastructure to harvest the socioeconomic benefits, while at the same time protecting the ecosystem for future generations.

River Basin Organizations (RBOs) have been established in many of the world’s basins to better coordinate different stakeholders’ actions and foster cooperation instead of conflict. Based on the experiences of several RBOs worldwide, several key characteristics for their effectiveness can be identified.

The EU Water Framework Directive aims to make all waters cleaner and healthier. To meet these requirements, the ICPDR's Danube River Basin Management Plan closely examines the most important pressures affecting water status.
Significant water management issues, called SWMIs, are the central pressures of basin-wide importance affecting the ecological and chemical status of surface waters, including pollution by organic substances, nutrients, and hazardous substances, as well as hydromorphological alterations. The first interim overview on the Significant Water Management Issues was created in 2007 for the 1st DRBM. The SWMIs outlined in this report were derived based on the requirements of the WFD and mainly related to quality aspects. For transboundary groundwater bodies, both qualitative and quantitative issues are addressed.

Vienna, 20 Dec 2019. The ICPDR provides an interim overview on Significant Water Management Issues (SWMIs) in the Danube River Basin District for the 3rd Danube River Basin Management Plan (3rd DRBMP) and invites the public to comment on this document until June 2020.