On Tuesday 14 November, the European Commission announced that the previous day it had adopted a decision granting Italy an advance of €94.7 million from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) to ease the financial burden following the devastating floods in the Emilia-Romagna region in May 2023.
The European Commissioner for Cohesion, Elisa Ferreira, said that this aid was “needed now more than ever before to alleviate the social, economic and environmental costs caused by these events”.
The advance follows the request for EUSF support submitted by Italy on 24 July 2023 and will help the Italian authorities to restore key infrastructure, fund rescue services, implement measures to protect the region’s cultural heritage and finance general clean-up operations.
Last June, the Commission proposed increasing the ceiling of the ‘Solidarity and Emergency Aid Reserve’ (SEAR) by €2.5 billion as part of the mid-term review of the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
The proposed €2.5 billion is to be split between the two SEAR instruments - the EUSF and the Emergency Aid Reserve - over the remaining four years of the 2021-2027 MFF programming period. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)