Between 1993 and 1995, 8 million inhabitants in France, Germany and Luxemburg along the river basins of the Mosel and Nahe were subjected to severe flooding risks. The 4- year TIMIS project led by Luxemburg will invest €6.8 million to build a common flood forecasting system which could be shared by 7 partners located in Luxemburg, France and Germany. Transnationality is an inherent necessity of the project: partners will build a cross border spatial network across catchment areas covering 79,000 km², build common data and share valuable expertise on advance forecasting models that have already been tested. Innovation is a strong project dimension at several levels : firstly because this is the first time an IT-Platform is shared by authorities from different countries, secondly because of the GIS and IT technologies used and thirdly because of the combination of both flood previsions and cartographic data which could influence future EU policies on hazard mapping. By 2006, five forecasting centres in the Mosel and Nahe basins will be providing flood risk information jointly through a common ITsolution and in the long term the partners want to build up one common transnational flood forecasting centre for the Mosel and the Nahe. The partners estimate damage potential can be reduced by 30%, in the Mosel catchment area alone, by using appropriate forecast and information systems. The projects results will be disseminated to other NWE catchment areas. The Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg regions have already expressed their interest.