From 24th to 26th november 2010 the midterm conference of the INTERREG IVB project LABEL took place in Martfü, Hungary. Since the end of 2008, 20 partners are working on the project LABEL - LABE-ELBE Adaption to flood risk in the Elbe catchment area, to develop joint provision and adaption measures for the rising flood risk.

The event attracted over 120 participants primarily from Hungary and the LABEL partner states. It allowed a deependend exchange between the LABEL stakeholders with the current works in the Elbe catchment area and the responsibles in the Danube catchment area.

The mid-term results were presented and critically reflected. In addition to defining the tasks for the second half of the project, the results were comunicated with other river areas and ideas for the LABEL strategy were collected. "For us, this conference is of great importance for the effective implementation of flood risk management in Hungary. We can learn from the LABEL project and the partners from the Elbe and can as well contribute our experiences from Tisza", said the deputy state secretary for water (HU), Mr. István Kling, "the transnational cooperation beyond river catchments is necessary to practically implement joint ideas for risk management in Europe."

On the first day the main focus was on flood risk management and the implementation of the EU flood risk management directive. Hungarian approaches were presented in several presentations of different areas of expertise. The intermediate results of the LABEL Working Group RISK were presented by Matthias Grafe, Saxon State Office for the Environment, Agriculture and Geology. In spite of partly different problems, the Working Group, as well as the representatives of the specific states, federal states and regions identified and discussed lots of common ideas.

The following day addressed to the adaption to flood risks. The intermediate results from LABEL to the topics housing in risk areas, tourism and navigability were presented and discussed with the hungarian experts. A joint final disussion focussed the main messages of the conference. The event was concluded with an excursion to retention polders, finalised in 2010. The polders at the Tisza have a volume of more than 90 Mio. m³. 

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