The Danube Internationalization File until 1878

GHEORGHE CLIVETI
Abstract
The primary purpose of the present study is to analyse and present the issues related to the interests and policies of the European Great Powers during most of the 19th century regarding the control and administration of navigation on the Danube. The mere organisation of the navigation rules along this river that crosses a large portion of Central Europe towards the Black Sea cannot be the only nor the most important reason for an increased interest in its control since there are strategic implications of at least European scope at the core of this issue. As the many treaties and conventions concluded between states show, the issue of internationalising navigation on the Danube has been complicated from the beginning. The lack of agreement between the parties, the absence of a common language of dialogue, and the social, political, and national issues characteristic of the nineteenth century have often been the cause of stagnation and setbacks at the negotiating table. The establishment of the European Commission of the Danube at the end of the Crimean War in 1856 marked an important milestone in the administration of the Danube, and the Commission’s mandate continued in the following years despite the omnipresent regional conflicts.
Keywords: the Danube question, the international file, the treaties and conventions relating to the Danube, The European Commission of the Danube, the Commission of the Riparian States.