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For investigations of feedbacks between the hydrological cycle and the climate system, we assess the performance of the regional climate model CCLM in reconstructing the water balance of the Elbe river catchment. To this end long-term mean precipitation, evapotranspiration and runoff are evaluated. Extremes (90th percentile) are also considered in the case of precipitation. The data are provided by a CCLM present-day simulation for Europe that was driven by large-scale global reanalyses. The quality of the model results is analyzed with respect to suitable reference data for the period 1970 to 1999. The principal components of the hydrological cycle and their seasonal variations were captured well. Basin accumulated, averaged daily precipitation, evapotranspiration and runoff differ by no more than 10 % from observations. Larger deviations occur mainly in summer, and at specific areas.