ICPDR Framework

The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) is an International Organisation consisting of 14 cooperating states and the European Union. Since its establishment in 1998, the ICPDR has grown into one of the largest and most active international bodies of river basin management expertise in Europe.

Given the complexity of the Danube River Basin, including many countries with widely differing economic and environmental management needs, one overall framework was required to sustainably manage the basin. In 2000, the ICPDR contracting parties nominated the ICPDR as the platform for the implementation of all transboundary aspects of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). The WFD is a holistic legal and policy framework, based on transboundary cooperation in basins, seen by many as the strongest water protection legislation in the world. The ICPDR received a similar mandate in 2009 to support the coordination of the implementation of the EU Floods Directive. In its work to implement the EU’s Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the EU’s Floods Directive (FD), the ICPDR and its partners have developed a truly integrated approach to the management of the river basin and its resources.