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Seminar on Integrated Water Management in the Tisza River Basin
Final Report - Part I
ABBREVIATIONS
AGL FAO - Land and Water Development Division
AGLW FAO - Water Resources, Development and Management Service
CADSES Central Adriatic Danubian and South-Eastern European Development Space
CAP Common Agricultural Policy
CBC Cross Border Cooperation
CCP Country Contact Point
CEMAT European Conference of Ministers Responsible for Regional Planning
CEO Chief Executive Officer
CF Carpathian Foundation
CLRAE Congress for Local and Regional Authorities in Europe
COE Council of Europe
CS Czechoslovakia
DANCEE Danish Cooperation for Environment in Eastern Europe
DEI District Environmental Inspectorate
DLG Dienst Landelijk Gebied (Netherlands)
DRBMP Danube River Basin Management Plan
DTD Project Danube-Tisza-Danube Project
EBRD European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
EEC European Economic Community
EIA Environmental Impact Assessment
ERDF European Regional Development Fund
ESA Environmentally Sensitive Areas
EU European Union
EUR Euro
FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
GAP Good Agricultural Practice
GEF Global Environment Facility
GIS Geographic Information System
HU Hungary
IAC International Agricultural Center (Netherlands)
ICPDR International Committee for the Protection of the Danube River (Vienna)
IFA International Framework Agreement
IRBM Integrated River Basin Management
ISPA Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (EU)
IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature
LPA Low Productive Areas
MOAFWE Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Waters and Environment (Romania)
MOARD Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Hungary)
MOAWM Ministry of Agriculture and Water Management (Serbia and Montenegro)
MOEW Ministry of Environment and Water (Hungary)
MS Member States
NAEP National Agri-Environmental Programme
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NFP National Focal Point
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
NL The Netherlands
NPI National Pollutant Inventory
NWA National Water Authority (HU)
PHARE Poland/Hungary Assistance for Restructuring (EU)
PWMC Public Water Management Company
RBMP River Basin Management Plan
REC Regional Environmental Center
REU Regional Office for Europe (FAO)
REUA Regional Office for Europe - Agriculture Department Group (FAO)
RIZA Institute for Inland Water Management and Waste Water Treatment (Netherlands)
RO Romania
S&M Serbia and Montenegro
SAPARD Special Accession Program for Agriculture and Rural Development
SC Steering Committee
SCI Sites of Community Interest
SD Sustainable development
SE Serbia
SEUR Sub-regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe (FAO)
SK Slovakia
SKK Slovakian crown
SLO Slovenia
SPA Special Protection Areas
SU Soviet Union
TCP Technical Cooperation Programme (FAO)
TRB Tisza River Basin
TRBEP Tisza River Basin Environment Programme
TWF Tisza Water Forum
UA Ukraine
UK United Kingdom
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
USSR United Soviet Socialist Republic
VITUKI Water Resources Research Center (Hungary)
WB World Bank
WFD Water Framework Directive
WG Working group
WWF World Wildlife Fund
WWTP Waste Water Treatment Plant
YU Yugoslavia
Prelude
In two consecutive FAO Regional Conferences for Europe in Portugal (2000) and Cyprus (2002), the Government of Hungary has emphasized the need for technical assistance in the form of a water management project, involving the countries in the Carpathian Sub Basin of the Danube, to address recurring problems related to water management and environment.
In order to work towards a joint approach of the water management in the Carpathian Basin, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MOARD) of Hungary requested the FAO to provide a project to that effect in November 2000. This request was subsequently supported by Slovenia, Slovakia and the FR Yugoslavia. The FAO has acted on that request and prepared a project outline, which was in a later stage revised (May, 2002), in order to adapt the project in compliance with the EU Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD). That project outline was consequently approved as basis to be elaborated into a full-fledged FAO regional Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP). Due to some delay with the follow up on the project outline, the FAO agreed with the initiating country in the beginning of 2003 that first a seminar would be organized to explore the willingness of countries in the Carpathian region to still cooperate on the issue of integrated water management of trans-boundary river systems. As model area the Tisza catchment was selected, which is the largest catchment of the Carpathian sub basin of the Danube. The principal objective of this seminar was to achieve as much common ground as possible regarding the goal of integrated water management. Representatives of Hungary, Romania, Serbia/Montenegro, Slovakia and Ukraine were invited to present their views, and were especially encouraged to present their own visions for the future.
Seminar basis and implementation
During 20-21 November 2003, the seminar under the title "Integrated Water Management in the Tisza River Basin" was held in Budapest. The seminar was organised jointly by the FAO Sub-regional Office in Budapest and the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, while the main funding was provided from the Dutch programme "Partners for Water".
Hungary, Romania, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovakia and Ukraine participated in the seminar with delegations of both policy makers and technical experts from the water management, agriculture, environment and regional rural development sectors. Besides the country representatives, FAO, Council of Europe, Wetlands International, Regional Environmental Centre, World Wildlife Fund, Ramsar Convention Bureau, Euregio Meuse-Rhine, International Agricultural Centre, Institute for Inland Water Management and Waste Water Treatment (RIZA) and DLG Service for Land and Water Management had delegated experts to contribute to the seminar.
The basis of the two-day presentations and discussions was the existing agreements between the riparian countries and ongoing activities, on which future integrated actions will be built. In this framework flood prevention and environmental issues remained high on the agenda. In view of the accession of Hungary and Slovakia to the EU in May 2004, there will also be new funding opportunities for the eventual implementation of agreed water management measures. These and other financing possibilities were also discussed during the seminar.
Further, the seminar builds upon a baseline survey carried out prior to the seminar with the aim to assess activities, policies and strategies related to the Tisza River in the five countries and to identify relevant subjects to be presented at the seminar. The report of the baseline survey includes the following sections: 1) an inventory of relevant documents, 2) assessment of institutional arrangements, 3) the major gaps in the coordination, 4) inventory of policies and strategies in the five countries, and 5) recommended key issues of the five countries. The main outputs of this baseline survey are presented in Annex E.
Also, the seminar builds upon the above mentioned FAO project outline with the title "Integrated Water Management of the Carpathian Sub-Basin of the Danube - a proposal for programme preparation". The FAO will use the findings of the seminar to evaluate whether to continue the project development.
The present seminar report contains the main topics, recommendations and conclusions presented and discussed during the two-day seminar in Budapest. The individual presentations, WG sessions and plenary discussions are presented in this report in a shortened version in order to focus on the most important issues for the Tisza according to the seminar objectives.
For further information, some contact details are given in Annex A. The seminar agenda is attached as Annex B, while the FAO project outline is presented in Annex C together with a paper by Wetlands International on the role of an international seminar in this context. The list of participants attending the seminar is attached as Annex D.
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