Europe - UNEP

A cargo ship approaching the Vihreäsaari harbour in Oulu, Finland, while the Bay of Bothnia starts to freeze for the winter. Photo credit: Estormiz,
via Wikimedia Commons.
A wide variety of joint commissions (Map 7
(A) for transboundary waters exist throughout
Europe, including the commission for the
Danube, Dnieper, Elbe, Meuse, and Lake
Constance (Rhine), Lake Leman (Rhone), Oder,
Rhine, Saar, Moselle, and Scheldt river basins.
Several bilateral commissions have also been set
up by countries in order to utilise and protect
frontier waters, which include the Finnish-
Norwegian transbounday water commission, the
Finnish-Russian joint commission on the
utilisation of frontier waters, Estonian-Russian
joint commission on transboundary waters, and
the Luso-Spanish commission.
Many international agreements provide for
such joint commissions and stipulate the
commission’s responsibilities. The International
Commission for the Protection of the River
Danube (ICPRD), for instance, was set up
following the 1994 Danube Agreement. Broadly
speaking, the ICPRD oversees the implementation
of the convention and enhances cooperation
between contracting parties. This commission
consists of delegations from each of the
contracting parties, with each party nominating
no more than five delegates including a head
of delegation and a deputy. The chair of the
international commission rotates annually
between the contracting parties. 4
4.6 CONCLUSION
This chapter demonstrated that while
international agreements relating to
transboundary waters have existed in Europe
since before the nineteenth century, disputes
between European countries do occur
occasionally. However, the chapter also showed
that Europe has developed a variety of
cooperative frameworks that promote
cooperation between European countries and
develop mechanisms for dispute avoidance.
The analytical framework adopted for this
4
The next chapter provides further details on the ICPRD, as well as
the commissions established within the Dneiper and Narva Basins.
62 — Hydropolitical Vulnerability and Resilience along International Waters: Europe