At a meeting with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Tuesday 12 September in Strasbourg, Kyriákos Mitsotákis, the Prime Minister of Greece, called for an increase in the appropriations earmarked for the EU Solidarity Fund and also for the reserve for agricultural crises, following the deadly floods that hit the Thessaly plain in particular, and the many fires that broke out this summer.
According to the Greek Prime Minister, the EU Solidarity Fund is not fit for purpose, not in terms of process, “but in terms of the volume of funds available”. Mr Mitsotákis has made it his personal mission to “convince” his counterparts at the European Council to provide the Solidarity Fund with “significantly more [money to] support countries hit by natural disasters directly linked to climate change”, he said.
This also applies to the agricultural crisis reserve. It is less than €500 million a year, at a time when climate change is having a significant impact. “We need to mobilise additional funds” for these reasons, explained the Greek Prime Minister.
€2.25 billion in EU funds. Ms von der Leyen spoke about the various elements of the budget available to support Greece in these difficult times: - use unspent cohesion funds from the last period, which would otherwise be lost (i.e. new money), and concentrate certain parts of the current cohesion funds at the beginning of the period; - use the European Social Fund + (these unspent funds can be disbursed this year); - mobilise the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (two unused funds from the previous Greek rural development programme and funds from the Greek strategic plan for the CAP would be available). “And we will be looking at the agricultural reserve for next year”, promised the President of the Commission.
These funds could, for example, contribute to the restoration of forests or agricultural infrastructure. “In total, this could enable Greece to raise up to €2.25 billion”, said Ms von der Leyen.
In addition, the Commission is ready to assess a Greek application for aid under the Solidarity Fund. “It is important that the Member States accept our proposal to increase the Solidarity Fund. If this is the case, next year we could release up to €400 million” for Greece, said the President of the Commission.
Finally, Greece could consider using some of Next Generation EU’s resources.
Since 2021, the Solidarity Fund and the Emergency Aid Reserve have been financed as a single instrument, called the ‘Solidarity and Emergency Aid Reserve’, with a maximum annual budget of €1.2 billion (at 2018 prices). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)