The Black Sea is the world's most isolated sea, whose catchment is 6 times larger than its water surface area, covering almost a third of continental Europe. The Danube River Basin (DRB), one of the most important sub-basins of the Black Sea, is the most international river basin of the world as its catchment of about 800,000 km is shared by 19 countries. The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) coordinates transboundary cooperation on water management in the DRB and works to ensure that waters remain clean, healthy and safe. To achieve these objectives the ICPDR elaborates river basin management plans for the DRB including a Joint Program of Measures (JPM) to be implemented on the basin-wide level.

In the currently published Danube River Basin District Management Plan Update 2015 (DRBMP-2015) nutrient pollution has been identified as one of the significant water management issues in the DRB. The Black Sea is sensitive to eutrophication and the severe eutrophic conditions of the late 1980s might arise again if wastewater treatment and agriculture are not managed sustainably. Between 2005 and 2015, about 460,000 tons nitrogen and 25,000 tons phosphorus were transported annually to the Black Sea by the Danube River. The ICPDR's current activities to facilitate the implementation of the JPM set in the DRBMP-2015 have a strong focus on the reduction of the nutrient pollution of the Danube River and the Black Sea coastal and marine waters to avoid future deterioration of the Black Sea ecosystem and further reaching good status. According to a modest modelling scenario about 5% nitrogen and 10% phosphorus river load reduction will be achieved by 2021 thanks to basic measures to be implemented.

The Danube countries agreed in 2016 to start in close cooperation with the agricultural sector a broad discussion process aiming at developing a guidance document on sustainable agriculture to reduce nutrient pollution from diffuse sources. The guidance paper will recommend sound policy instruments, financial programs and cost-efficient agricultural measures. It should act as a strategic policy framework providing consistent approaches for all Danube states. It will contribute to sustainable agriculture and shall ensure an effective protection of both, the DRB water bodies and the Black Sea coastal waters against excess nutrient inputs. It will also strengthen the profitability of farmers, competitiveness of agriculture and vitality of rural areas. The implementation of the guidance document will lead to further nutrient pollution reduction. This is a significant step towards the ICPDRs vision of a balanced nutrient management in the DRB which ensures that neither the waters of the DRB nor the Black Sea are threatened or impacted by eutrophication.

The ICPDR believes that the guidance document on sustainable agriculture will contribute to the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14, particularly to the achievement of the targets on preventing and reducing marine pollution by nutrients particularly from land-based activities (Target 14.1) and on protecting coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts (Target 14.2).