International Commission For The Protection of The Danube River - Structure and Decision Making

Structure and Decision Making

The ICPDR is an international organisation. It meets twice a year: The Ordinary Meeting is held in Vienna in December, another meeting of Heads of Delegations is held in June in the country of the Presidency. The meetings comprise of delegations of contracting parties and observer organisations. Every contracting party has one Head of Delegation representing the country. For all decisions the achievement of consensus is sought. The meetings are chaired by the ICPDR President; ICPDR Presidency is passed on from one country to another in an alphabetical order every year.

In addition, much of the work of the ICPDR is done by Expert Groups (EGs), which are panels of specialists from the ICPDR contracting parties and observers – usually civil servants of the relevant ministries, in some cases employees of NGOs or contracted agencies. There are seven permanent Expert Groups and one ad hoc Expert Group as of 2011:

1. Pressures and Measures
2. Monitoring and Assessment
3. Flood Protection
4. River Basin Management
5. Information Management and GIS
6. Public Participation and Communication
7. Accident Prevention and Control
8. Strategic Expert Group (ad hoc)

The expert groups all have Terms of Reference and mandates adopted by the Commission. They usually meet twice to three times a year. Time- and target-limited task groups may also be established for specific tasks which not necessarily all countries are represented in. The expert groups discuss issues related to their Terms of Reference and prepare reports and recommendations for coordinated action.

The ICPDR has a Permanent Secretariat to support its work, supervised by an Executive Secretary, as of 2011, Philip Weller. The secretariat has its headquarters in Vienna, from where it administers, manages and supports the work of the ICPDR. The total staff of the secretariat is 8 permanent staff members and additional short-term project staff. If all national experts, delegates from observers and consultants are considered, there are more than 300 people working with and for the ICPDR.