On Thursday 31 October, the Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development (REGI), Dragoş Benea, expressed his condolences to the families of victims affected by the floods in Spain and his support “for the people impacted, the local and regional authorities, and the emergency services”.
Like the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the day before (see EUROPE 13515/30), Dragoş Benea emphasised “the increasing frequency and seriousness of natural disasters in the EU”. In response, the Chair of the REGI Committee stressed “the urgent need to adopt the Commission’s RESTORE proposal – Regional Emergency Support to Reconstruction”. Adopted by the European Commission on Monday 21 October, the proposal aims to amend three EU regulations to ensure that EU funds can be rapidly mobilised in the event of damage caused by natural disasters (see EUROPE 13509/5).
The proposal, if adopted, would make it possible “to offer essential support, such as health care, food and basic material assistance, as well as to finance short-time working programmes for employees and self-employed workers affected by natural disasters”, pointed out the MEP.
By making it possible to reprogramme part of the funds from the Cohesion Policy (17.7 billion) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), the proposal should make it possible to urgently repair infrastructure and equipment damaged by climatic disasters, and to help farmers.
In the meantime, the European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, assured the social network X on Wednesday 30 October that “the European Solidarity Fund and the new Cohesion Policy instrument RESTORE can contribute to the recovery efforts in solidarity with Spain”, while omitting the fact that this instrument had not yet been formally adopted. When this is the case, Member States will be able to use it retroactively to cover natural disasters that have occurred since 1 January 2024.
At Spain’s request, the European Commission sent satellite images via its emergency management service, Copernicus, on Wednesday 30 October to monitor the consequences of the floods. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)