EU pot for flood aid almost completely empty – politics


The European Union’s budget for the flood disaster in Germany and other EU countries is almost empty. Almost all of the funds available this year have already been allocated to requests for other natural disasters in the past twelve months, according to a letter from EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to the Green MEP Rasmus Andresen, that this has published on his homepage.

Von der Leyen speaks in the letter of an “unsatisfactory situation for the EU and its citizens”. With the increasing frequency and destructiveness of natural disasters, solvency is a challenge this year. Exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, this has “shown the inadequacy of the solidarity instruments available”.

Andresen speaks of an untenable situation

Von der Leyen pointed out that the annual ceiling in the EU budget for the so-called “reserve for solidarity and emergency aid” is 1.2 billion euros. After the flood disaster in July, the commission offered Germany and other countries millions in aid from the relevant fund. In the letter, the Commission President promised to examine all possible ways of helping the countries affected by the flood. The Commission is in close contact with them to determine eligibility for the EU Solidarity Fund.

The Green budget expert Andresen expressed himself horrified to the newspapers of the Funke media group: “If an EU member state is hit hard by natural disasters, the solidarity of the other states should be a matter of course,” he told the Funke newspapers. “The fact that the EU pots for it are apparently empty or that the money has already been spent this year is an untenable situation.”

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