Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ermina Salkičević-Dizdarević opened Conference on Hydropower and Water Management

 

Ljubljana, 26 and 27 March 2013 – A Conference on Hydropower and Water Management was held in Ljubljana, discussing “Guiding Principles on Sustainable Hydropower Development in the Danube Basin”. Mrs. Ermina Salkičević-Dizdarevič, as the President of the ICPDR for 2013, opened the Conference and gave keynote remarks on the role of the ICPDR in this process, as well as on the Guiding Principles themselves.

The ICPDR was tasked to develop the Guiding Principles, whose aim is to integrate environmental aspects in the use of existing hydropower plants, including potential increases in their efficiency and to aid in the planning and construction of new hydropower plants. Within the frame of the ICPDR, Austria, Romania and Slovenia were the countries which lead the whole process of developing the Guiding Principles.

The aim of the Conference is to present and discuss the results of the work undertaken in the frame of the two years of dialogue and to introduce them to a broader audience. In support of development of the document, a broad participative process was set up with the involvement of representatives from administrations (energy and environment), the hydropower sector, NGOs, and the scientific community. During the course of a number of meetings of this Team of Experts, significant steps were taken towards a common understanding of the issue and draft versions of the Guiding Principles were subsequently developed. The importance of this document is reflected in the number of participants – about 90 – which, next to the representatives of the ICPDR members, included representatives of non-Danube countries such as Switzerland and Norway, and representatives of Universities in Ljubljana and Vienna, Energy Community and WWF.

The general objective of the Guiding Principles is to create a common vision and understanding of the requirements and the issues to be addressed to ensure sustainable use of hydropower in the Danube basin. The document is expected to play an important role for a coherent and coordinated implementation of relevant legislation, in particular for the EU Renewable Energy Directive, the EU Water Framework Directive, and other relevant environmental and water management legislation. Furthermore, the Guiding Principles are also intended to provide relevant information to potential investors in the hydropower sector, as well as associations and the public.

The Guiding Principles are very important to Bosnia and Herzegovina, because, even though non-binding, they are, as all the work of the ICPDR, based on EU directives, in particular: the EU Directive on Renewable Energy, Water Framework Directive, EU Floods Directive and other relevant regulations of the European Union in the field of environment and water management.