The German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety has given advisory assistance to the Republic of Bulgaria preparing the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). The advice was given in the context of the EU-Pharesupport programme („Phare-Twinning-Projects“) during a two-year german-bulgarian twinning- project. One objective of the project covered the development of the structure of a River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) for the bulgarian part of the Danube catchment area by the  regional river basin directorate in Pleven and in accordance with the WFD.