The Council and European Parliament failed to reach agreement at the first interinstitutional sitting on the modification of the natural disasters regulation proposed by the European Commission to speed up the delivery and efficiency of aid for areas hit by natural disasters, explained Commissioner Corina Creţu in an interview with this newsletter on Thursday 4 May.
After the earthquakes that hit central Italy in 2016, the European Commission proposed to introduce a derogation for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to allow co-financing of 100% from the European Union for aid for the devastated regions. The idea is backed by the European Parliament, which added an upper limit of 5% of the fund’s total financing (see EUROPE 11750), but was amended by the Council to set the EU co-financing cap at 90% in order to ensure member states take a responsible attitude to spending (see EUROPE 11758).
The first interinstitutional meeting was held in the evening of Wednesday 3 May. The Commissioner again said she didn’t understand the member states’ viewpoint, pointing out that 100% co-financing exists for other initiatives, such as to support SMEs or fight youth unemployment. As for the European Parliament’s proposal, the Commissioner said that her services had considered this option at one point, but then saw the snags with this measure, which would mean setting an upper limit of €5 million for Luxembourg and €2 billion for Poland.
It seems that the European Parliament is prepared to agree to a 95% co-financing rate with a threshold of between 5% and 10%. Parliament is not entirely unanimous about 100% co-financing, where there is a geographic divide between the Italian delegation and delegations from member states in the north, particularly Germany.
The date of the next interinstitutional meeting had not been set as we went to press. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)