The objective of the Commission is to regulate the navigation regime, economic development, integral water management and environment protection of the entire basin.
The navigation regime is expected to be the same as on the Danube.
This implies free navigation for commercial vessels of all countries, with free access to ports along the navigable part of the Sava river from the Croatian city of Sisak to the mouth of the Sava in the Danube in Belgrade as well as along all navigable tributaries to the Sava.
The duty of the commission is to implement a Framework Agreement on the Sava River Basin which Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia-Montenegro signed in 2003. Zagreb has been chosen as the permanent seat of the commission whose sponsors are the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe and the Office of the High Representative to Bosnia (OHR).
Croatian Transport and Development Minister Bozidar Kalmeta, who welcomed today's inauguration of the commission, described as important the fact that the international legal regime which would be applied for the Sava river was the same as the one being applied in the European Union regarding river navigation.
According to him, over the last five years, Croatia earmarked 10 million euros from budgetary funds for the improvement of the navigable conditions on the Sava. This year, an additional million euros will be allocated for this purpose.
"The rehabilitation of the navigation along the Sava river is one of priorities of the Croatian transport policy," Kalmeta said calling for investments into the entire navigable section of the river.