Public Consultation for the Draft Management Plan Updates 2027

In its pursuit of sustainable transboundary river management and effective flood risk management and in the Danube River Basin, the ICPDR continues to improve and protect a high level of water quality throughout the region. All of this work began back in 1994 with the signing of the Danube River Protection Convention, but also includes the EU Water Framework Directive (2000) and the EU Floods Directive (2007).

As laid out in the objectives of the above, the ICPDR develops such plans at 6-year intervals: a River Basin Management Plan and the Flood Risk Management Plan for the Danube River Basin. These plans lie at the core of the ICPDR's central work programs, and as such, they should be developed with strong involvement of civil society and stakeholders from the beginning via public participation events such as workshops.

How This Consultation Works

This process of consultation follows the following timeline:

Consultation on the Proposed Schedule

1. June 2024 – Dec 2024: Stakeholders are invited to comment on the proposed schedule for consultation activities – WFD & EFD: Public Participation Plan” schedule (IC 271)
2. End of Dec 2024: Proposed schedule is revised in line with comments received;
3. End of Dec/Jan 2025: Revised schedule for consultation is adopted in written form by ICPDR Heads of Delegation.

Consultation on the SWMIs

Identifying the Significant Water Management Issues (SWMIs) is one of the key elements guiding the formulation of the DRBMP. 

1. May 2025 – Nov 2025: Interim overview of SWMIs is discussed within ICPDR expert and task groups and prepared for publication;
2. Dec 2025 – June 2026: Publication of the SWMIs overview report for which the public are invited to provide comments;
3. Autumn 2026: Revision of SWMIs overview;
4. Dec 2026: Endorsement of the interim overview of revised SWMIs following revisions. 

Consultation on the Draft Plans

1. Dec 2027: Endorsement and publication of the revised 4^th DRBMP and 3^rd DFRMP.
2. Dec 2025 – Dec 2026: Preparation of the draft 4^th DRBMP and 3^rd DFRMP prior to publication;
3. Dec 2026 – June 2027: Publication of draft 4^th DRBMP and 3^rd DFRMP including Publication of DFRMP Risk and Hazard maps, for public comment for a six-months period;
4. Dec 2026 – June 2027: Collection of comments from the public;
5. June 2027 – Dec 2027: Revision of draft 4^th DRBMP and 3^rd DFRMP; comments are made available online in an up to date consultation report;

Stakeholder Workshop

After the publication of the draft DRBMP, a stakeholder workshop will be held to support the development of the plans. Through such a workshop, a larger and very focused group of people can get involved in the formalization of the 4^th DRBMP and 3^rd DFRMP. This will take place in June 2027.

How To Send Us Your Comments 

Individuals, public bodies, NGOs, and other interest groups to make comments on the schedule, draft plans, and other relevant documents relating to the 4^th DRBMP and the 3^rd DFRMP Updates. The public is invited to provide comments on this documents to the ICPDR Secretariat:

Address:
ICPDR Secretariat
Vienna International Centre, Room D0412
Wagramer Strasse 5
A-1220 Vienna, Austria

E-Mail:
jsq-sq@vpcqe.betgro.rdpci@df-dfw

Why Public Participation?

Communities can become more meaningfully involved in the work of the ICPDR if they are well informed about its objectives and structure. Public information, educational initiatives and outreach activities are therefore already being utilised to support public participation, in addition to the more general use of social media as a communication tool. The ICPDR is currently engaged in the following public participation activities:

• Public information dissemination. This includes social media posts, technical reports, public documents and general publications (e.g. Danube Watch);
• awareness-raising educational resources, including environmental education. This includes a variety of proposed new materials, awareness raising activities (e.g. the annual Danube Day festivities) and outreach;
• public consultation activities. These can be events such as Q&A sessions regarding the development of river basin management plans, and the opening of subject-related communication channels or consultation workshops. The use of ICPDR.org for publishing information about these issues is essential.

Acting early is also important. By ensuring buy-in and a sense of ownership in our target audience at an early stage of the process, any basin/sub-basin approach will stand a better chance of success. The benefits of early engagement in the development and design of our two plans and projects include:

• Fewer misunderstandings, fewer delays and more effective implementation and monitoring;
• the resulting smoother running of a project can lead to more cost-effective solutions;
• all later decisions are more likely to receive public acceptance, commitment and support. Attitudes to the decision-making process will also be generally improved;
• increasing stakeholder awareness of the various issues in the related river basin district and sub-basins before environmental efforts become worse and thus harder to resolve;
• helping to normalise common discourse earlier in the implementation process.

How Public Participation Is Changing

The ICPDR is committed to active public participation in its decision making. The commission believes that this facilitates broader support for policies and leads to increased efficiency in the implementation of actions and programmes. Active consultation with stakeholders takes place throughout the entire cycle of all ICPDR activities, ranging from developing policies, to implementing measures and evaluating impacts. The legal framework for this is provided by Article 14 of the EU Water Framework Directive along with Articles 9 and 10 of the EU Floods Directive.

Working to a six-year working cycle, we updated our plans for the Danube River Basin Management Plan (DRBMP) and Danube Flood Risk Management Plan (DFRMP) in 2021. The update was accompanied by public consultation activities carried out in three main phases; we collected comments from the public during the update, asking them about the timetable and work programme, as well as water and flood management issues. These public consultations each spanned periods of at least six months, utilising the ICPDR network to gather and disseminate information. The resulting timetable and work programme was then published and made publicly accessible. Six years hence, it is now time to replicate this exercise.

Our planned update to proceedings in 2027 will follow on with this emboldened programme of public consultation, along with information initiatives aimed at keeping our stakeholders and the public well-informed. These include the Danube Day - celebrating everything about the river annually on 29th June and consultation workshops such as Our Opinion - Our Danube.