Danube Area

The Interreg Danube Region Programme 2021-2027 was adopted on 29^th November 2022. The Interreg Danube Programme (DTP)  promotes economic, social, and territorial cohesion in the Danube Region through policy integration in selected fields.

The 2021-2027 Programme works around four priorities:

• Priority 1: A more competitive and smarter Danube region
• Priority 2: A greener, low-carbon Danube region
• Priority 3: A more social Danube region
• Priority 4: A better cooperation governance in the Danube Region.

Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction are mainly considered under Priority 2 and specifically addressed in the Specific Objective 2.4 (Promoting climate change adaptation and disaster risk prevention, resilience taking into account ecosystem-based approaches). Supported projects shall take into consideration the existing mechanisms and solutions, in order to gain synergies and avoid duplication of the efforts. Transnational cooperation actions are expected to generate a better prepared and more resilient society, economy and nature. As for biodiversity issues, further transnational actions are expected to produce results under the Specific Objective 2.7 (Enhancing protection and preservation of nature, biodiversity and green infrastructure, including in urban areas, and reducing all forms of pollution). In this regard, the programme advocate coordinated and harmonised measures within transnationally relevant ecological regions ensuring resilience and adaptation to climate change to reduce its impacts on biodiversity.

In the programming period 2014-2020, the Danube Interreg Programme dealt with challenges related to climate change mainly in the context of transnational water management, flood management and related risk management. Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction were explicitly considered under priority 2, corresponding to the programme's thematic objective on ‘Environment and resource efficiency’ (TO6).

The EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), adopted by the European Commission in December 2010 and endorsed by the European Council in 2011, is a macro-regional strategy which was jointly developed by the EC, Danube countries and stakeholders in order to address common challenges together. The strategy seeks to create synergies and coordination between existing policies and initiatives taking place across the Danube region.

The revised  EU Action Plan (2020) for the EUSDR has three main goals: to update and streamline the actions stated in the previous Action Plan of the region (2010); to provide more strategic guidance for the implementation of the EUSDR; to achieve a better compatibility of the EUSDR Action Plan with other programmes and funding instruments. The Plan identifies a portfolio of 85 actions for the 12 Priority Areas (PA) identified by the EUSDR. Climate change impacts and climate adaptation issues prominently feature in the environmental pillar of the strategy, which is composed of Priority Area 4 ‘To restore and maintain the quality of waters’ (PA4), Priority Area 5 ‘To manage environmental risks’ (PA5) and Priority Area 6 ‘To preserve biodiversity, landscapes and the quality of air and soils’ (PA6). Among these, PA5 has the highest relevance to adaptation. The EUSDR Action Plan encourages actions to: anticipate regional and local impacts of climate change for disaster risk reduction (Actions 2, 3, 4, 5, PA5); adapt to climate change impacts on water quality and quantity and to support smart uses of the water resource (Action 6, PA4); ecologically restore wetlands, especially in the Danube delta (Action 10, PA6).

Due to geographic overlaps with other macro-regions, also the European Strategy for Alpine Space (EUSALP) and the European Strategy for Adriatic-Ionian Region (EUSAIR) are to some extent relevant for transnational cooperation on adaptation in the Danube region.

The main objective of the Danube River Protection Convention (DRPC) is to ensure that surface waters and groundwater within the Danube river basin are managed and used sustainably and equitably. The signatories of the convention have agreed to co-operate on fundamental water management issues. Climate change is addressed in an indirect way by aiming at, inter alia, the conservation, improvement and rational use of surface waters and groundwater as well as at preventive measures to control hazards originating from accidents involving floods. The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) has been created for coordinating the implementation of the convention. The ICPDR works towards managing flood risks in sustainable ways. The Flood Protection Expert Group (FP EG) supports the implementation of the Action Programme for Sustainable Flood Protection in the Danube River Basin. It also supports the activities related to the implementation of the EU Floods Directive, such as the development of flood hazard and risk maps and the Danube River Basin Flood Risk Management Plan. In February 2021, the Member states’ Ministers, the Member of the European Commission, and the High Officials as those responsible for the implementation of the Danube River Protection Convention endorsed the 2022 Danube Declaration- A Vision for Integrated Water Management in Our Shared Basin, building a Sustainable Future in the Danube River Basin”. It welcomes the objectives and key messages of the 2018 ICPDR Climate Adaptation Strategy and reaffirms the effects of climate change (drought, water scarcity, extreme hydrological phenomena and other impacts) as a new significant water management issue for the Danube River Basin.

To improve the coordination of trans-boundary water management activities – also related to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction - in the Danube River basin, the ICPDR and the EUSDR agreed on a Joint Paper on Cooperation and Synergy for the EUSDR Implementation.

The area of the Carpathian Convention is mainly included in the Danube transnational region. This sub-regional treaty was signed in 2003 by seven Carpathian States (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic, and Ukraine). It aims to improve the quality of life, to strengthen local economies and communities, and to conserve the natural values and cultural heritage of the Carpathian area. At the Fifth meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Carpathian Convention (COP5, 2017) an amendment to the Carpathian Convention was adopted to include a new Article on Climate Change (12bis). It requests Parties to pursue policies aiming at climate change mitigation and adaptation in all sectors relevant to the Convention. Consequently, the long term Vision 2030 for the Carpathian area was established ‘to strengthen collaborative efforts towards a climate-neutral path that delivers climate-resilient and sustainable development in the Carpathians’. This vision, aligned with the implementation of the Article 12bis of the Carpathian Convention, is detailed in seven strategic objectives and concrete targets. The Working Group on Adaptation to Climate Change supports the implementation of the Convention with special focus on this article. It works towards the long-term Vision 2030 and actively promotes pathways for climate proof development in relevant sectors.

Detailed information including links to the most relevant documents on adaptation in the Carpathian mountains is provided by the Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention based on submission from the Convention´s Working Group on Adaptation to Climate Change.

In response to the ‘Danube Declaration’, a Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change of the ICPDR was adopted in December 2012 and updated in 2018. The ICPDR Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change aims at offering guidance on the integration of climate change adaptation into ICPDR planning processes. It promotes multilateral and transboundary cooperation action in the context of climate change adaptation and serves as a reference for national policy makers and other officials. The Strategy provides the knowledge base and a strategic framework for integrating adaptation to climate change in the water sector into the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive and the EU Floods Directive. A comprehensive and easy-to-use toolbox of potential adaptation measures allows users to obtain detailed information on measures of interest, by filtering sectors, typologies of measures, time horizon and relevance for the EU Water Framework Directive and the EU Floods Directive.

Climate change adaptation is mainstreamed into the periodic updates of the Danube River Basin Management Plan (DRBM Plan) and the Danube Flood Risk Management Plan. The implementation of both plans is an integral part of the EUSDR Action Plan.