On Thursday 15 December, the European Commission proposed to earmark €104 million from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) for France, Greece, Spain and Portugal, following the natural disasters these member states have experienced over recent months.
Corina Crețu, the European Commissioner for Regional Policy stated, “In Portugal, in Spain, and from the Greek island of Lesbos far off in the Aegean Sea to the French Outermost regions in the Caribbean, the EU leaves no one alone in the face of tragedy”.
In 2017, Portugal was hit by unprecedented forest fires and is therefore expected to receive €50.6 million and Spain, €3.2 million. France is expected to benefit from aid worth €49 million for Saint-Martin and Guadeloupe, which were severely affected by the Irma and Maria hurricanes. Greece is expected to receive €1.3 million following the earthquake in June 2017, which hit the Greek island of Lesbos.
The Commission made a payment in December 2017 of the first tranche of €1.5 million to Portugal, with an advance of €5 million to France (see EUROPE 11914) and €136 000 to Greece in October 2017.
It should be recalled that the European Commission calculates the amount on the basis of the wealth of the member state in question and the amount of damages caused by the natural disaster. A financial threshold in each member state must be exceeded in order to be able to apply for the EUSF. This corresponds to 0.6% of gross national income or €3 billion according to 2011 prices. The aid set out is therefore 2.5% of the estimated costs of the damages below the threshold and 6% of the damages when the threshold is exceeded.
The Commission presented a new system in November for tackling natural disasters, known as the RescEU. This system involves a reserve of material and human resources hired out to the Commission by the member states (water bombers, hospitals and emergency medical teams, etc.) in support of member state action to tackle the natural disasters (see EUROPE 11911). The estimated budget is around €280 million. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)