Months after severe storms and flooding battered parts of southern Europe, the European Union's executive arm has moved to formally propose financial help for the countries hit hardest.
The European Commission proposed mobilizing €489 million, roughly the equivalent of several hundred million dollars, to help Portugal, Spain, Italy and Malta recover from severe storms and flooding that struck in January and February of this year. The funding is intended to support recovery operations, including rebuilding damaged transport infrastructure like roads, bridges and rail lines, and helping restore essential public services that were disrupted in the affected regions.
The proposal draws on the EU Solidarity Fund, a mechanism the bloc uses to help member states cope with the financial burden of major natural disasters, from floods and storms to earthquakes and wildfires. It reflects a recurring pattern in recent years of increasingly severe winter storm systems moving across the Iberian Peninsula and the central Mediterranean, testing infrastructure and emergency response systems in the affected countries and prompting repeated calls from member states for EU-level support.
Because the funding must still move through the EU's normal budgetary and legislative process, the announcement represents a proposal rather than money that has already been disbursed. Even so, it signals that Brussels views the scale of the damage from the January and February storms as significant enough to warrant one of the EU's dedicated disaster relief mechanisms, rather than leaving recovery costs solely to national governments. For the four countries involved, the funding would help offset costs that have already been borne largely by national and regional budgets since the storms struck earlier in the year.
The EU Solidarity Fund was created in 2002, originally in response to catastrophic flooding in central Europe, and has since been used dozens of times to help member states cope with disasters including earthquakes in Italy, wildfires in Greece and Portugal, and flooding across the continent. This latest proposal continues that pattern, and the four countries affected are likely to welcome the support as they continue longer-term rebuilding efforts that, in some cases, are still ongoing many months after the storms first hit.
The proposal will need approval from the European Parliament and the Council of the EU before funds can be disbursed to the four countries.
What is the EU Solidarity Fund?
It is a European Union mechanism that provides financial assistance to member states recovering from major natural disasters.
Has the money already been sent to the four countries?
Not yet. The Commission has proposed the funding, but it still needs approval from the European Parliament and the Council of the EU before it can be disbursed.