Today, June 29, 2024, we celebrate International Danube Day.
Croatia was among the first countries in the Danube basin to express support for the idea of protecting the Danube by signing the Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Danube River in Sofia on June 29, 1994, together with 9 other countries - Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine, and the European Union.
The Convention came into force in 1998, since when the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) based in Vienna has been successfully working towards achieving its goals. Today it counts 14 member countries (in addition to the previously mentioned, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro are also members) and the European Union as a whole.
Celebrating Danube Day
The Commission initiated the celebration of the day of this most significant and second-longest European river in 2004, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Convention. Since then, Danube Day has been celebrated every year across the Danube basin, from Germany to Romania and Ukraine, on the Danube and its tributaries, with motivating messages and activities encouraging discussions about the Danube and raising awareness about the community's and every individual's responsibility for preserving this river.
The first Danube Day in Croatia was held on the banks of the Danube in Vukovar on June 29, 2004, and this year marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Convention and the 20th anniversary of the celebration of Danube Day, under the motto "Let the Danube remain blue!". Such celebrations remind the general public that waters know no borders, and everything that happens in the protection and use of rivers upstream is significant for all downstream members, making international cooperation in water management extremely important.
For this very reason, the Water Framework Directive, as the overarching directive of the European Union's water policy, requires cooperation on international basins and the creation of a joint management plan, which is one of the core tasks of this Commission.
The Danube basin has a great impact on the economy, environment, and culture of the entire area, and the Commission and member countries on this occasion express strong support for Ukraine due to the Russian aggression that negatively affects the measures taken and results achieved in the Black Sea basin so far, hoping that the next Danube Day will be celebrated in peace and security.
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