Danube River Protection Convention
The Danube River Protection Convention forms the overall legal instrument for co-operation on transboundary water management in the Danube River Basin. The Convention was signed on June 29 1994 in Sofia (Bulgaria) and came into force in 1998. It aims to ensure that surface waters and groundwater within the Danube River Basin are managed and used sustainably and equitably.
The Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the River Danube (Danube River Protection Convention) forms the overall legal instrument for co-operation and transboundary water management in the Danube River Basin.
The Convention was signed on June 29 1994, in Sofia, Bulgaria, by eleven of the Danube Riparian States – Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine – and the European Community, and duly came into force in October 1998, when it was ratified by the ninth signatory.
The main objective of the Danube River Protection Convention (DRPC) is to ensure that surface waters and groundwater within the Danube River Basin are managed and used sustainably and equitably.
This involves:
- the conservation, improvement and rational use of surface waters and groundwater
- preventive measures to control hazards originating from accidents involving floods, ice or hazardous substances
- measures to reduce the pollution loads entering the Black Sea from sources in the Danube River Basin
The signatories to the DRPC have agreed to co-operate on fundamental water management issues by taking "all appropriate legal, administrative and technical measures to at least maintain and where possible improve the current water quality and environmental conditions of the Danube river and of the waters in its catchment area, and to prevent and reduce as far as possible adverse impacts and changes occurring or likely to be caused."
