Danube Day is marked every year on June 29th. It all started the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Management of the Danube, when the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River at a Ministerial Meeting held on 29 June 2004 in Vienna initiated the celebration – the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy writes.

After the Volga, the Danube is the second longest (2,857 kilometers) and richest river in Europe and the longest river in the European Union.

The Danube springs in Schwarzwald, a wooded mountainous region in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany, continues to flow east and forms a delta on the Black Sea coast of Romania and Ukraine, and is at the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

The Republic of Croatia was one of the first countries to express support for the idea of protecting the Danube River. Together with nine other countries (Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine) and the European Union, it signed the Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Management of the Danube River on 29th of June 1994 in Sofia and ratified in 1996, and since then successfully participates in the work of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR).

The ICPDR has 14 member states and the European Union and is considered a world example of international cooperation in the field of river basins.

On this date, promotional and educational activities are organized in all cities and towns along the Danube under the auspices of the ICPDR, aimed at drawing the attention of the inhabitants of the Danube basin to the importance of rivers and encouraging their protection and sustainable use for future generations.

This year, a number of planned activities as part of the Danube Day celebrations have been postponed due to special circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the anniversary will be marked by virtual activities.

Croatia's contribution to this year's Danube Day was the presentation of educational activities in the Danube and Sava river basins that are organized throughout the year to EU water and sea directors at their joint video meeting held on June 16th, 2020 as part of the Croatian Presidency.