In the presence of diplomatic representatives from all Danube Basin countries, Norbert Halmo, from the Ministry of Environment of Slovakia, presented a bottle of Danube Water to Mitja Bricelj in Vienna on 14 January 2010. With this symbolic gesture, the ICPDR Presidency 2010 has been taken over by Slovenia.

Danube Watch: What are your goals for 2010?
Mitja Brecelj: The ICPDR is at a crossroads. 2010 will be crucial for future development in the Danube region. Two central issues that are on our agenda are the Danube River Basin Management Plan and the EU Danube Strategy.

Danube Watch: What is the role of the Danube River Basin Management Plan?
Mitja Brecelj: The Danube River Basin Management Plan is a roadmap to achieving sustainable river management, and it is crucial to bring the Plan higher on the agenda of the other sectors, such as agriculture, navigation, and the energy sector. We need to ensure that all projects on and along the Danube rivers – whether infrastructure or agriculture – follow the principles of sustainability at the regional level.

Furthermore, efficient adaptation to climate change can only be done based on the regional water cycle. And as the regional water cycle is the central issue of the Danube River Basin Management Plan, we have the basis for further work on this in our hands.

The current ongoing development of the EU Danube Strategy provides a unique opportunity. The ICPDR will need to ensure that the Danube River Basin Management Plan – with its goals and measures – is recognised as the environmental pillar for development in the region.

The Danube River Basin Management Plan cannot be implemented by the water managers alone, however. We need effective partnerships at the regional level – and the Danube Strategy might be a good tool to achieve this. I will personally do my best to ensure the involvement of the different players – including authorities at regional, national and international levels.

As Danube tradition dictates, the ICPDR Presidency was symbolically presented to Mitja Bricelj, Secretary of the Slovenian Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, in the form of a bottle of Danube Water.

Danube Watch: Slovenia is very active in promoting the sustainable management of the Mediterranean Sea. What are the links to the Danube in the approach?
Mitja Brecelj: Firstly, there is a natural link between the Danube and the Mediterranean Sea – namely the Black Sea. And as the cooperation mechanism of the ICPDR has proved to be successful, it would be good to also apply it to the Mediterranean Sea.

In 2005 the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development was adopted at the 14th COP of the Barcelona Convention [14th Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean and its Protocols] in the city of Portorož in Slovenia, providing the framework for further work. It is now time to develop effective cooperation tools in the Mediterranean context.

Therefore, I organised a meeting between the management structures of the Danube and the Barcelona Convention in Postojna in 2007 to share the lessons learned – and the meeting was fruitful. Postojna was chosen as the meeting place as it is in the Slovene carstic area, where the underground waters also link the Danube and the Mediterranean Sea.

Danube Watch: The Sava river, which is so important to Slovenia, is the first tributary of the Danube to have its own convention. What is the value of such sub-basin initiatives?
Mitja Brecelj: The Danube level is good for the basinwide approach, but specific problems connected with sub-basin characteristics can be best solved at the subbasin level. The problems connected to the Sava can therefore best be solved at this level: the closer one is to the problems, the closer one is to the solutions.

Danube Watch: Thank you and all the best for your presidency!