Danube Commission

The sixteenth regular session of the Danube Commission was held in Budapest in January 1957. It was reported that a series of organizational and financial problems was deliberated, an assessment of the practical work accomplished given, and the fundamental tasks of the Commission in the forthcoming period determined. Reportedly, the Danube Commission had covered and resolved almost all the basic problems concerning the establishment of the regulations for ensuring free navigation of the Danube; however, uniform regulations regarding civil law relations in navigation still had not been established. In setting its future tasks, the sixteenth session took into account, inter alia, the interconnection of the Danube basin with the other European water ways (the Rhine, the Oder, the Vistula, and the east German canals) and the complex utilization of the Danube as a source of hydroelectric power. It was reported that active cooperation had been established with the Economic Commission for Europe and the International Navigation Congress of Brussels. The importance of taking the entire Danube into account was noted in deliberating the tasks of the Commission relating to navigation and to the increased economic exploitation of the Danube. In this connection it was reported that beginning from the fifteenth regular session of the Commission, the Austrian and west German experts were participating in the Commission's activities.