Annual meeting of secretaries of the international river protection commissions

Meetings of the heads of secretariats of the European international river protection commissions are organized every year, in order to ensure regular exchange of information on the activities of these organizations.This year, the meeting was held on August 28-29, in Nyon (Switzerland), and hosted by the International Commission for the Protection of the Leman Lake. The commissions for the rivers Rhine, Oder, Elbe, Danube, Sava, Mosel and Saar, Maas, Scheldt, and Leman lake, were represented at the meeting.

The main part of the meeting was dedicated to development of RBM plans, as the EU WFD stipulates the finalization of the plans by the end of 2009. The status of the RBM plan development in all represented basins was reported, and the problems experienced so far and those that are likely to happen in finalization of the plans, were discussed. The Secretary of the Sava Commission, Dr Dejan Komatina, presented an overview of performed and planned activities of the Sava Commission in this and other fields of its work.

At the end, the participants welcomed the proposal of the Sava Commission to host the next meeting. Accordingly, it was agreed that the meeting will be held on August 24-25, 2009, in Zagreb. Keeping the scope of work of the Sava Commission in mind, there is an idea to invite, for the first time, representatives of the European navigation commissions to this meeting.