International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine
The International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR) based in Koblenz is an organization based on an international agreement between the Rhine bordering states Switzerland , Liechtenstein , Austria , France , Germany and the Netherlands as well as Luxembourg and the European Union with the following objectives:
- sustainable development of the Rhine ecosystem
- Securing the use of Rhine water for drinking water production
- Improvement of the sediment quality for the safe removal of dredged material
- Holistic flood prevention and flood protection , taking ecological requirements into account
- Relief of the North Sea
The ICPR was founded on July 1, 1950. Members are Germany, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland and, since 1976, the EC Commission. The task is to research the pollution of the Rhine, to recommend water protection measures, to standardize measurement and analysis methods and to exchange measurement data.
Legal basis
- The Bern Convention of April 29, 1963
- Agreement on the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine against Pollution (Signing Protocol May 1, 1965, Federal Law Gazette September 6, 1965)
- 1976 Chloride Convention (July 5, 1985)
- Convention for the Protection of the Rhine against Chemical Pollution of December 3, 1976 (February 1, 1979)
- International Rhine warning system from 1982
- Action program Rhine from 1986 following the fire at the chemical company Sandoz near Basel on November 1, 1986. Only after this event did the environment ministers of the participating states give the ICPR explicit environmental protection goals and decided as a first measure to massively discharge 40 particularly harmful environmental toxins into the Rhine to reduce.
- Convention for the Protection of the Rhine of April 12, 1999
In the following years the ICPR became a model for similar organizations on other European rivers, such as the Elbe ( IKSE ), the Meuse ( Convention for the Protection of the Meuse ) and the Scheldt . Since the adoption of the Convention on the Protection of Lake Constance against Pollution in 1960, the ICPR has also been working with the International Commission for the Protection of Lake Constance (IGKB).