The 7th Croatian Water Conference with international participation was held in Opatija in the period from May 30 to June 1, 2019. The motto of the Conference was Croatian Waters in Environmental and Nature Protection, and thematically was based on the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive, which aims to protect and improve the water ecosystems in the European Union. A great number of scientific and professional papers were presented at the conference, many of which emerged from different European projects, but it was also clear that there is still room for better use of funds from European Funds. Moreover, special emphasis was placed on international cooperation, which is in the spirit of the European Union. In this kind of content, the project SIMONA has been well-integrated and was presented in the form of paper and presentation within one of the four scientific and expert topics of the Conference, entitled Water Policy, Education, Water Management Planning, International Cooperation and Public Participation. Also, the paper from the group of authors of the Croatian Geological Survey, Hrvatske Vode and Public Institution Vode Srpske, titled The SIMONA project – establishing drainage sediment quality monitoring system in the Danube catchment, was published in the Conference Proceedings Book (link https://www.voda.hr/hr/zbornici-radova-hrvatskih-konferencija-o-vodama). The paper and the presentation were focused on the Water Framework Directive, international cooperation, vertical cooperation between scientific institutions and state-level water management institutions, the significance of the drainage sediment as a sampling media and the description of the SIMONA project work packages.