The first meeting of the expert group for the elaboration of safety guidelines for terminals was hosted by Germany and organized on 14 March 2012 in the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in Berlin. The meeting is part of the project on hazard and crisis management in the Danube Delta between the Republic of Moldova, Romania and Ukraine (further referred to as the Danube Delta Project, DDP).

The DDP is mainly funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and organized under the Assistance Programme  of the UNECE Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents. The project aims at improving the cooperation between the three project countries in the Danube Delta region by enhancing and where possible harmonizing the mechanisms and approaches for efficient and effective hazard and crisis management. In this regard, one goal is also the development of practical recommendations/guidelines for authorities and operators to strengthen their hazard management.

With regard to that, the objective of the expert group meeting was to brainstorm with international experts the need to create safety guidelines for oil terminals and which shape they would have. The guidelines to be developed by 31 March 2013 would be mainly used within the DDP, but also by other UNECE countries and should help authorities and operators to improve the safety level at installations.