Slovenia's presidency will continue to work on flood safety, water-powered power stations, transport, irrigation, fisheries, tourism and navigation in the Sava area by taking into account local environment, the Agriculture and Environment Ministry said.

In pursuing its goals, the Slovenian presidency will be guided by green growth, green infrastructure, new jobs, safe corridors and arrangements for reducing flood risk in the Sava basin.

Members of the Sava commission, which brings together Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia, also signed today an agreement on data exchange between hydro-meteorological institutions.

This type of cooperation was proposed by meteorological services in all members of the commission in order to establish a legal framework for exchange of various data.

The agreement is seen as a step towards further development of regional cooperation to secure sustainable international management of the Sava and help prevent floods and other potential risks.

The International Sava River Basin Commission was founded in 2002 by Slovenia, Croatia, Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to establish an international navigation regime on the Sava and its tributaries.

The idea of the commission was also to better connect the environment of the Sava basin and the people living there to improve their living conditions.

The Sava is Slovenia's longest river, flowing 218 kilometres across the country before crossing over to Croatia, and later into Bosnia and Serbia, thus creating a link between ex-former Yugoslav countries.

It flows into the Danube near the Serbian capital of Belgrade, 940 kilometres downstream from the Slovenian town of Radovljica (NW), where the rivers of Sava Dolinka and Sava Bohinjka merge into a single river.