In an own initiative report adopted on Wednesday 9 November (31 votes in favour, 4 against, with one abstention), members of the regional development committee at the European Parliament suggest a range of measures to improve the EU solidarity fund.
The report was put forward by Salvatore Cicu (EPP, Italy) and contains six major proposals: - redefining regional natural disasters; - allowing for a single application to be submitted jointly by several eligible states affected by a natural disaster at a cross-border level; - examining the indirect damage when assessing the application; - increasing the advance payments threshold from 10% to 15%; - shortening the deadlines for the processing of applications from 6 weeks to 4 weeks; - setting the eligibility threshold for regional natural disasters at 1% of regional GDP, taking into account, in the assessment of the request, the level of the socio-economic development of the region affected.
MEPs also call on member states to improve communication and cooperation with the local and regional authorities in order to ensure that Union assistance is as effective as possible on the ground.
It is not by chance that the rapporteur is Italian because Italy is a member state that is regularly affected by natural disasters. Last August (see EUROPE 11610), the country was hit on a number of occasions by strong earthquakes causing terrible losses on both a human and material scale. Italy should furthermore submit its request for the European Solidarity Fund soon because it has a 12 week deadline from the date of the disaster (see EUROPE 11630). It has reportedly still not done this. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)