Free Flow

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ooperation

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ustainability

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control, monitoring, exchange of hydrological and

meteorological data, and more. Decades of technical

and expert-level cooperation under the bilateral agree-

ments have developed into a well-functioning and

professional system of coordinated water resources

management, a prerequisite for safeguarding the coun-

try’s fragile water balance.

The entire territory of Hungary lies in the Danube

catchment area, which is not only the most international

river basin (involving 19 countries), but also boasts one

of the world’s most sophisticated institutional systems

of transboundary river basin cooperation. The corner-

stones of such cooperation are the 1994 Sofia Danube

River Protection Convention and the Water Framework

Directive of the EU (even those countries that are not

members of the EU have signed up to the implementa-

tion of the Water Framework Directive).

The main interface for the cooperation of Danube

countries is the International Commission for the

Protection of the River Danube (ICPDR), comprising

14 countries and the EU. ICPDR is not only a coordi-

nation mechanism; it also issues recommendations on

a wide range of subjects including water quality, flood

management, nature conservation and energy produc-

tion, and monitors their implementation. The success

of ICPDR has inspired the creation of a number of

other river basin cooperation platforms in south-east

Europe, such as the Sava Commission or the Drina

River Committee.

Hungary has also been an active promoter of the

institutionalization of international water coopera-

tion at pan-European level. Under the auspices of the

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe,

Hungary has launched and sponsored several initia-

tives to strengthen the legal and professional basis of

cross-border water management. Hungary will host the

triannual meeting of the parties of the 1992 Convention

on the Protection and Use of Transboundary

Watercourses and International Lakes in 2015. The

country was among the initiators of two of the proto-

cols of the 1992 convention: the 1999 Water and Health

Protocol and the 2003 Protocol on Civil Liability. It is

also a party to the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of

Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses.

Hungary has been a member of the EU since 2004.

The EU maintains the most stringent international legal

regime on water protection and management, cover-

ing the entire water cycle and the widest possible range

of human and economic activities. Its most important

legal instrument – the Water Framework Directive

– introduces a legal obligation to achieve ‘good water

status’ by 2015 (a range of measurable ecological,

chemical and quantitative criteria) as well as to prepare

and implement joint river basin management plans for

transboundary catchment areas.

Having remained committed to keeping water issues

high on the EU’s political agenda, Hungary chose water

as a priority area for political action during its rotating

presidency of the EU in 2011. Under Hungary’s leader-

training background. Hungarian experts have excelled in planning

and implementing complex water management systems in develop-

ing countries ranging from Mongolia to Algeria, and from Brazil to

Ethiopia. Supporting water-related development projects is a distin-

guished area of Hungary’s international cooperation policy.

With 96 per cent of the country’s surface water arriving from

abroad, international water cooperation is an eminent national

security, economic and nature conservation imperative for Hungary.

Some 700 settlements, 2.5 million people, 40 per cent of the coun-

try’s agricultural land and 2,000 industrial plants (indirectly about

30 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product) are potentially

affected by floods originating beyond the country’s borders. No

wonder Hungary has been a pioneer of international water coop-

eration both at basin and global level. Hungary maintains bilateral

water cooperation agreements with all of its seven neighbours

(Austria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine).

These agreements aim to contribute, among other things, to:

• the achievement of ‘good water status’ (a complex set of

chemical, ecological and quantitative objectives laid down by

the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive)

• prevention and control of water pollution

• prevention, mitigation and containment of negative

transboundary effects (floods, pollution incidents)

• development and maintenance of monitoring and

evaluation systems

• coordination of the sustainable utilization of water resources

• research and development.

These objectives are implemented through detailed techni-

cal protocols on water quality emergencies, flood management

Széchenyi thermal bath and swimming pool in Budapest: the region enjoys

abundant thermal water resources

Image: Hungarian Investment and Trade Agency