Page 1 of 10 Minutes, 17th Working Meeting, Sofia, 12 June 2003, Page 1/9

MINUTES

of the 17th Working Meeting of the Regional Hydrological Cooperation of the Danube Countries in the framework of IHP/UNESCO

held in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 12 June 2003 (List of participants: see Annex 2, list of accepted obligatory deadlines: see Annex 3)

The Working Meeting (WM) took place according to the points of the Draft Agenda (Annex 1), sent previously to the participants by the Hungarian Coordinator and accepted unanimously in the course of the WM itself.

1. Welcome address from the host country

Prof. K. Tzankov, Chairman of the Bulgarian National Committee for IHP/UNESCO, greets the participants of the WM, underlines its importance and wishes good success.

2. Introductory address of the representative of UNESCO/ROSTE

Mr Ph. Pypaert emphasizes the importance of the activity of the WM within the system of IHP activities, urges the identification of more practice-related goals in accordance with the expectations and guidelines of IHP-VI and a striving to an improved visibility of the Danube Cooperation within the IHP.

3. Official transference of the coordinatorship of the cooperation

Dr P. Miklánek, Chairman of the Slovak IHP National Committee, coordinator of the hydrological cooperation of the Danube Countries during the period 1999-2002, delivers his closing statement (Annex 4) and thanks for the good cooperation with the members of the Working Group (WG). The outgoing Slovak coordinator officially transfers this coordinatorship to Ms Zs. Buzás, representative of Dr J. Váradi, Chairman of the Hungarian IHP/OHP National Committee, coordinator of the WG during the period 2003-2005, wishing good success to the new coordinator’s work. Ms Zs. Buzás thanks for Dr P. Miklánek’s and Dr P. Petrovič’s devoted and successful activity during the period 1999-2002. The following documents are handed over: - the original copy of the Principles of the coordination (version of 2002), signed, so far, by the representatives of the National Committees of 9 Danube Countries (Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria) - the documents of ICPDR sessions, in which, since June 2001, the actual coordinator of the WG has a status of an observer - the Draft Minutes of the last Extraordinary Meeting of the WG (Bucharest, 1 September 2002). The Draft Minutes of the 16th Working Meeting (Zagreb, May 2002) will be sent out for comments by 15. 07. 2003. Page 2 of 10 Minutes, 17th Working Meeting, Sofia, 12 June 2003, Page 2/9

4. Election of the Chairman of the WM

Following a proposal of Mr U. Schröder, member of the German delegation, Mr M. Domokos from the coordinating country Hungary is unanimously elected Chairman of the WM.

5. Statement of the outgoing coordinator

(included in point 3 of the Agenda, see also Annex 4)

6. Statement of the incoming coordinator

Mr M. Domokos greets the participants of the WM, verifying that from the 13 Danube Countries 11 Countries are represented (missing: Bosnia & Herzegovina and Ukraine) and regrets that none of the 5 countries having minor shares in the danube Catchment could attend the WM. Mr M. Domokos reads his introductory statement (Annex 5), including the following topics:

- Review of the history, former coordinators and results of the hydrological cooperation of the Danube Countries from 1971 to date - The Circular, distributed on 1 September 2002 in Bucharest, sounding the willingness of the Countries to continue the cooperation, with attached Questionnaire (so far, 9 answers received) - Survey of sharing efforts dedicated to achieve results of the cooperation (Annex 6) and a wish to a better balanced sharing of labour in the future - Technical aspects of this WM, whose operative language will be only English with occasional translations when necessary, from German to English, by Mr M. Domokos himself.

Prof. H.-P. Nachtnebel suggests that concise Minutes of the WMs (concentrated to accepted resolutions and obligatory deadlines) should be prepared and distributed in the future possibly within 1 month’s time after each WM.

7. Review of the status of the ongoing projects and sub-projects of the cooperation

a) Project No. 3: „Long term fluctuation of precipitation in the Danube Basin” Prof. H.-P. Nachtnebel announces that the report on this project (including a CD- ROM with the processed monthly precipitation data) will be printed until the end of the summer of 2003 and will be published until the end of September 2003 by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The experts from Ukraine will be kindly asked for the linguistic check of the draft Russian text. Due to the generally known difficulties arisen during the project’s history, its content will be slightly limited as compared with its original goals. The front cover page of the project report will be blue and the number of printed copies will be 500. Mr J. Weber suggests to examine if the period 1931-70 of the rainfall time series, processed in the project, could still be extended (in view of the year 2003 of publication). Mr M. Domokos opines that this would be desirable but physically impossible; the project report should be issued as soon as possible.

Page 3 of 10 Minutes, 17th Working Meeting, Sofia, 12 June 2003, Page 3/9 b) Project No. 4: „Flood coincidence of the Danube River and its major tributaries” Prof. S. Prohaska reminds that the English version of this project report was issued in 1999. Mr U. Schröder announces that a 4-lingual version of the report (English, German, Russian and Serbian) will be prepared, printed and distributed by the German IHP/OHP National Committee by the end of 2003. Answering a question by Mr J. Weber, Mr M Domokos declares that the colour of the front cover of the project report has to be blue. c) Sub-project No. 5.1: „Inventory of the main hydrotechnical structures in the Danube Basin” Ms V. Ungureanu on behalf of Dr I. Paşoi distributes the draft sub-project report both in printed form and on CD, asking the members of the WG to check, and if necessary correct and complete it (particularly Austria) until the end of September 2003. It is concluded that the Romanian case studies, presently included in Chapter 9 of the draft report, should be separated in the final version of the report as an Annex, which possibly should contain case studies also from other Danube Countries. Furthermore, the content of the new chapter 8 of the project report has to be re-examined. Mr Ph. Pypaert suggests that an evaluation of impacts of hydrotechnical works on natural regime be prepared by the project leader and included in the final version of the project report. The draft of these conclusions has to be finalized and has to be sent for comments to the WG members until 31 August 2003. The experts of the Danube Countries have to send their comments and modifications both on the draft sub-project report and on the new conclusions until 30 September 2003. For the linguistic check of the German and Russian abstracts, the German and Ukrainian experts will be contacted by the project leader, Dr I. Paşoi. The report will be printed in 500 copies and distributed by the end of 2003. The list of required copies is set up. Mr M. Domokos, as the coordinator of the cooperation, was kindly asked by the project coordinator to write the Foreword of the project report before 31 August 2003. Financial support of UVO/ROSTE to the printing expenses would be welcome. The request will be submitted through the Hungarian coordinator to UVO/ROSTE, Venice by 31 August 2003. d) Sub-project No. 5.2: „Flow regime of the River Danube and its Catchment” Mr H. Engel informs that the number of printed copies of the trilingual version of the very substantial project report (ca. 500 pages) will be between 300 and 500, including a CD-ROM containing the processed data. The report will be also available as a pdf on the Internet. The draft report is available for information and comments for the participants during the WM, but it is not yet given to each Danubian Country because of its high extension. The draft report will be distributed to the IHP National Committees of the Danube Countries by the end of July 2003. The IHP National Committees are kindly asked to send their respective comments by the end of August 2003 to Mr H. Engel. No answer by this deadline will be interpreted as full agreement. Page 4 of 10 Minutes, 17th Working Meeting, Sofia, 12 June 2003, Page 4/9

The report will be printed by the end of the year 2003. Before finalization, a linguistic checking of the Russian text will be asked from the Ukrainian IHP NC. Mr M. Domokos informs that the colour of the front cover of the sub-project report should be green. Mr J. Weber informs that the costs for finalizing the trilingual report on sub-project 5.2, including translation, corrections and printing, will be about 15 000 Euro. He asks UVO/ROSTE for financial support of 5 000 Euro. Mr Ph. Pypaert agrees investigating to allocate such a support of UVO/ROSTE for this purpose, if the request will be submitted – jointly with other similar requests – through the Hungarian coordinator to ROSTE by 31 August 2003.

e) Sub-project No. 5.3: „Update of the Water Balance” Dr P. Petrovič briefly informs the WM about the present situation in the project in oral and written form (Annex 7). He also has sent some information about the present situation of the project for the 1st Standing Working Group Meeting of ICPDR, held in Prien am Chiemsee on 12-13 June 2003 (Annex 8). The project is in serious delay, so it is very important to keep the deadlines of the proposed time schedule. The project leader, Dr P. Petrovič, had organised on 24 October 2002 a meeting of selected experts nominated in Bucharest as the closer author group for the „Umbrella-project” proposal. This meeting decided to create a Steering Committee (SC) of the sub-project, which so far has had 2 sessions in Bratislava (on 24-25 October 2002 and on 22-23 May 2003), and will have probably 3 more sessions until the finishing of the sub-project by the end of 2004.

Steering Committee (SC) of sub-project 5.3: Status Name (Country) Chairman: P. Petrovič (SK) Vice Chairman: H.-P. Nachtnebel (A) Members: H. Kling (A) P. Kovács (H) V. Ungureanu (RO) L. Zimmermann (D)

It is proposed that the above SC has the full responsibility and also the full power to manage the project according to the proposed time schedule and to decide the best way of utilizing the financial support allocated by UVO/ROSTE for sub- project 5.3 (for 2003-2004: USD 80. 000)1. The project leader, Dr P. Petrovič asks the WM to confirm the creation of the SC with the above mentioned rights and duties. This SC will inform both the Hungarian co-ordinator of the IHP co-operation of the Danube Countries and the ICPDR Secretariat directly on each important decision and project progress. The WM agrees to empower the SC with the above mentioned items. Dr P. Petrovič asks all participating countries to have in mind all the agreed resolutions and to co-operate with the Steering Committee as effectively as possible. In case of any difficulties the SC (after unsuccessful or not existing communication with the nominated national expert) has to inform immediately the

1 Information by Dr P. Petrovič. Page 5 of 10 Minutes, 17th Working Meeting, Sofia, 12 June 2003, Page 5/9

responsible head of delegation in the ICPDR directly with the request for decision about further development (more intensive support of national contribution, or excluding the particular country from further participation in the sub-project), as defined in the Summary Report on the 6th Steering Group Meeting of the ICPDR (Lovran 2001) (Annex 9). The WM nominates the following experts of the Danube Countries as members of the Expert Group of sub-project 5.3:

The Expert Group (EG) of sub-project 5.3: Country Nominated expert L. Zimmermann Germany assistant: P. Krahe Austria H. Kling Czech Republic E. Soukalová Slovakia P. Petrovič Hungary P. Kovács Slovenia M. Śraj Croatia B. Horvat Bosnia & Herzegovina - Serbia & Montenegro B. Kapor Romania V. Ungureanu Bulgaria S. Dakova Moldova - Ukraine Y. Navybanetz (?)

Dr P. Petrovič states that the draft project report must be compiled and submitted to ICPDR by the end of 2004, if no unexpected difficulties arise. Mr M. Domokos asks if the known alternative project proposal, entitled “Seasonal Water Balance of the Danube River Basin”, submitted in Postojna, Slovenia 2001 by Austria (Annex 10) could not be included in sub-project No. 5.3, as a complementary component. Dr P. Petrovič rejects this possibility.2 Prof. H.-P. Nachtnebel confirmed that in the present advanced status of the elaboration of the sub-project 5.3 on the basis of the methodology of Dr P. Petrovič, the inclusion of another methodology (such as Annex 10) would not be recommendable. Ms L. Serenco, as the representative of the IHP National Committee of Moldova announces that her country would be in the position to delegate a competent member into the EG of sub-project 5.3, who, unfortunately, does not speak (fluent) English. She asks that travel and accomodation support be made available both to this delegate and his/her translater enabling them to attend EG meetings on sub-project 5.3. Dr P. Petrovič, as sub-project leader, is kindly asked to examine the implementation of this request.

2 Two days after the Working Meeting (on June 14th 2003) there was held, also in Sofia, as announced in the invitation to that Working Meeting, a Workshop on sub-project 5.3, Water Balance, which was combined with the training of WatBal Methodology application. The Record of the latter Workshop have been compiled by the sub-project leader, Dr P. Petrovič, and is included as Annex 20 to the present Minutes. Page 6 of 10 Minutes, 17th Working Meeting, Sofia, 12 June 2003, Page 6/9

f) Sub-project No. 6.4: „Meandering and slope conditions of the Danube River and geometrical parameters of the river channel” Prof. S. Prohaska declares that the IHP National Committee of Serbia and Montenegro is prepared to act as the leader of this sub-project. A detailed sub- project proposal and the nomination of the sub-project leader will be sent out before the end of October 2003. g) Project No. 7: „Regionalization of the Annual Maximum Runoff in the Danube River Basin” Ms V. Ungureanu announces that the manuscript of the project report in English, with extended summaries in German and Russian is ready, only a Foreword by the Hungarian coordinator is yet requested. The project report will be printed on the expenses of the Romanian IHP NC, in 500 copies by 31 October 2003. A list of requested copies is set up. h) Sub-project No. 8.1: „Hydrological bibliography related to the Danube Basin” Mr U. Schröder distributes a new version of the Thesaurus of the bibliography, now complete with 10 languages of the Danube Countries plus English and Russian (Annex 11). The Serbian and French version is under compilation. The first part of the Bibliography itself, containing the excerpts of the papers submitted to the so far 21 Danube Conferences, will be made available on the Internet by the end of 2003. The further development of the bibliography will be in close cooperation with the UNESCO office in Venice. Following the proposal of Mr Ph. Pypaert, the infrastructure at the UNESCO Office in Venice should be used to develop a web- based bibliography. As a first step, information of the contributions of the so far 21 Conferences of the Danubian countries on hydrological forecasting and hydrological bases of water management will be incorporated following the proposal of 1995. Later on, information on relevant national hydrological literature concerning the Danube basin will also be included. The UNESCO office in Venice will be asked through the coodinator of the cooperation to allocate the necessary financial means for developing and implementing the web-based bibliography. Mr U. Schröder will contact Mr Ph. Pypaert to arrange the further technical procedure. Afterwards guidelines for the contributing countries will be given. Mr M. Domokos, as the coordinator of the hydrological cooperation of the Danube Countries suggests that the so far rather protracted process of compiling the Bibliography be sped up in the future. He recommends that

- Mr U. Schröder give the initiative and guidelines, including the expected deadline, for compiling the national contributions to the second part of the Bybliography (containing excerpts of relevant national technical journals) by the end of August 2003 to the Danube Countries, - the first part of the Bibliography (containing summaries of conference papers) be made available on the Internet by the end of December 2003.

Page 7 of 10 Minutes, 17th Working Meeting, Sofia, 12 June 2003, Page 7/9

8. Proposals and resolutions on new projects

As a giudeline for considering new project proposals, an „Outline” was offered by Mr M. Domokos (Annex 12)

a) Project No. 9: „The flood regime of rivers in the Danube River Basin” This proposal, first submitted in 1998 (Annex 13), could not be discussed during this WM, due to the absence of the Ukrainian delegation. The Ukrainian IHP NC is kindly asked to re-arrange the project proposal, according to Annex 12, and send it to the Hungarian co-ordinator by the end of 2003.

b) Project No. 10: „The common hydrological metadatabase of the countries sharing the Danube Catchment” Dr L. Goda (Hungary) explaines in details this joint proposal of the German and Hungarian IHP/OHP NCs (Annex 14). After detailed discussion, the proposal project is accepted for inclusion in the WG’s Working Plan as Project No. 10. (voting: 9 yes, 0 no, 2 abstaining). As a first step the metadatabase should include the observation stations used in the previous projects of the cooperation. The contributing countries oblige themselves to work according to the timetable of Annex 14. The final version of the project proposal, in accordance with Annex 12, will be prepared and distributed by the project leader by the end of 2003. The deadline for finishing and publishing the project report is, according to this timetable, the end of 2004.

c) Project No. 11: „Characterization of the runoff regime and its stability in the Danube Catchment” Mr P. Kovács (Hungary) introduces the main points of the proposal of the Hungarian IHP/OHP NC (Annex 15). After detailed discussion on the project proposal, the WG decides to include it into the Working Plan of the Cooperation, as a new task, Project No. 11 (voting: 10 yes, 0 no, 1 abstaining) with the purpose, content and modalities described in Annex 15 of the Minutes of this Meeting. Mr P. Kovács assumes the obligation to comply with all duties of the project coordinator. The representatives of the 12 remaining cooperating Danube Countries oblige themselves to comply with their duties listed in Annex 15 (data supply and survey of the draft project report), according to the timetable included therein. The final version of the project proposal, in accordance with Annex 12, will be prepared and distributed by the project leader by the end of 2003.

d) Project proposal: „Mathematical modelling of hydraulic processes and riverbed deformations in Bulgarian-Romanian reach of the Danube River under the influence of anthropogenic factors – Risk zones” Prof. M. Botcheva (Bulgaria) (Annex 16)

e) Project proposal: „Modelling of erosion – transport – sedimentation processes on the main tributaries of the Danube River” Dr P. Stanciu (Romania) (Annex 17)

Page 8 of 10 Minutes, 17th Working Meeting, Sofia, 12 June 2003, Page 8/9

The resolution on the above proposals d) and e) is that both proposal makers are kindly requested to elaborate more detailed materials in accordance with Annex 12, on the pattern of those of Project No. 10 and 11 and distribute them among the cooperating countries before the next Meeting. Mr Ph. Pypaert considers to invite both proposal makers to a launching conference of IHP’s Sedimentation Initiative, to be held in Venice, in December 2003.

9. Date and place of the XXIInd Conference of the Danube Countries

Dr J. Hladný (the Chairman of the IHP NC of the Czech Republic) announces that the XXIInd Conference of the Danube Countries is planned to be convened in Brno, Czech Republic, for the period 28 August – 2 September 2004. If all necessary conditions can be cleared, the first announcement will be sent out by the end of August 2003. The Chairpersons of the NCs of the remaining Danube Countries are kindly asked to consider and report both to Mr J. Hladný and Mr M. Domokos by 31 March 2004, their possibilities to convene the subsequent XXIIIrd Danube Conference in 2006 in order to announce the invitation at the end of the XXIInd Conference in Brno. To facilitate this decision, the list of the places of the first 22 Conferences is attached as Annex 18.

10. Date and place of the 18th Working Meeting of the Regional Hydrological Co- operation of the Danube Countries

Ms E. Soukalová announces that it is foreseen to convene the 18th annual WM in Brno, on Sunday 27 August 2004. Mr M. Domokos declares that in 2004 there will be no extraordinary meeting of the WG.

11. Miscellaneous

a) Dr P. Miklánek suggests that the web site of the cooperation, which is now useable on the server of the outgoing coordinator (Slovak IHP National Committee), may be transferred to the server of the new coordinator, the Hungarian National Committee. Mr Ph. Pypaert informs that the UNESCO-ROSTE has the technical and personal capacity for handling this web page. The partners agree that the Slovak and Hungarian coordinators will discuss later this topic, and during this time of discussion the web site of the cooperation will be reachable on the server of the Slovak IHP National Committee.

b) The coordinator of the Hydrological Cooperation of the Danube Countries has an observer status in the Meetings of the ICPDR. Until this time Dr P. Miklánek, the outgoing coordinator was regular participant of these Meetings. Mr M. Domokos, the new coordinator of the cooperation, is asked to inform both UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and the ICPDR Secretariat in Vienna about the change of the coordinatorship by 15 July 2003, suggesting that the questions of sub-project 5.3, Water Balance, be personally represented by the sub-project leader, Dr P. Petrovič, at relevant ICPDR conventions. Page 9 of 10 Minutes, 17th Working Meeting, Sofia, 12 June 2003, Page 9/9

c) Mr M. Domokos declares that the colour of the front cover of the project reports (signed with one number, e.g. 7) has to be blue, the colour of the front cover of the sub-project reports (signed with two numbers, e.g. 5.2) has to be green. For the numbering of the follow-up volumes of the Danube Monograph see Annex 19.

d) Ms Zs. Buzás informs the WM that on the request of the River Basin Management Expert Group of ICPDR the Hungarian IHP NC as coordinator checked and corrected in April 2003 the different catchment data in the Draft roof report of the Danube River Basin District according to the EU WFD.

e) Mr J. Weber misses a deliberation during this WM of the at previous meetings investigated „umbrella-project” and „climate-change-project”. Mr M. Domokos answers that (1) none of the two projects was included in the Agenda of this meeting, (2) the „climate-change-project”, for the time being is not to be considered as a project of this cooperation, since it does not involve all Danube Countries. Prof. H.-P. Nachtnebel offers detailed information about the „umbrella-project”, pointing out that activities on this proposed project have been stopped. The German delegation regrets this fact since the „umbrella- project” would be an important tool to meet the expectations of UVO/ROSTE. As for the „climate-change-project”, Dr S. Dakova agrees to offer a written survey on the status of this project.

12. Closure of the Working Meeting

The coordinator, Mr M. Domokos thanks for the very active and positive cooperation of all participants of the WM as the result of which valuable new products of this cooperation can be expected soon. He particularly appreciates, in the name of all participants, the hospitality and excellent organization of the WM and the following study trip on 13 June 2003 by the Bulgarian colleagues, Prof. K. Tzankov and Dr S. Dakova and their team. Special thanks are due to Mr Ph. Pypaert from UVO/ROSTE for his activizing role and helpfulness. Financial support received from UVO/ROSTE and the German IHP/OHP NC, enabling the convening of this WM, is gratefully acknowledged. With this, the WM is declared closed.

Signed, after due checking by all participants of the WM3

Date: Budapest, 11 August 2003

(M. Domokos) coordinator of the cooperation

3 The first (draft) version of these Minutes has been distributed on 27 June 2003 to all participants of the WM. They were asked to send comments and amendements by 15 July 2003. By August 11, comments were received from the German, Slovak and Moldavian delegation. These comments were taken into account when compiling the present final version of the Minutes. Page 10 of 10 Minutes, 17th Working Meeting, Sofia, 12 June 2003, Page 10/9

List of Annexes

Annex 0: List of Annexes Annex 1: Agenda of the Working Meeting Annex 2: List of participants Annex 3: Table of obligatory and recommended deadlines (June 2003 – December 2004) Annex 4: Notes of the outgoing coordinator Annex 5: Statement of the incoming co-ordinator of the Regional Hydrological Co- operation of the Danube Countries in the framework of the International Hydrological Programme of UNESCO Annex 6: Table of involvement of the Danube Countries as project coordinators resulting in the publication of the Danube Monograph and its follow-up volumes as of May 2003 Annex 7: Information on the present situation in the Project 5.3 „Water Balance in the Danube River Basin” Annex 8: Information to the ICPDR: „Basin-wide Water Balance in the Danube River Basin” – State of the art of project development as of 05. 06. 2003 Annex 9: Excerpts from the Summary Report on the 6th Steering Group Meeting of the ICPDR (Lovran, Croatia, 07-08 June 2001) Annex 10: Former project proposal of Austria (submitted in Postojna, Slovenia 2001), entitled „Seasonal Water Balance of the Danube River Basin” Annex 11: Thesaurus of Sub-project 8.1: „Hydrological bibliography related to the Danube Basin” (version of 2003) Annex 12: Suggested outline for the structure of new project proposals Annex 13: The Ukrainian project proposal (Project No. 9): „The flood regime of rivers in the Danube River basin” Annex 14: The German-Hungarian joint project proposal (Project No. 10): „The common hydrological metadatabase of the countries sharing the Danube Catchment” Annex 15: The Hungarian project proposal (Project No. 11): „Characterization of the runoff regime and its stability in the Danube Catchment” Annex 16: The Bulgarian project proposal: „Mathematical modelling of hydraulic processes and river bed deformations in Bulgarian-Romanian reach of the Danube River under the influence of anthropogenic factors – Risk zones” Annex 17: The Romanian project proposal: „Modelling of erosion – transport – sedimentation processes on the main tributaries of the Danube River” Annex 18: The list of the places and dates of the first 22 Danube Conferences Annex 19: The numbering of the follow-up volumes of the Danube Monograph Annex 20: Water Balance of the Danube River Basin, Workshop and model use training (Sofia, Bulgaria, 14 June 2003). Record of Workshop realisation and some conclusions