Spain’s Minister for the Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, was in Brussels on Tuesday 12 November to discuss EU funds to help those affected by the floods.
Spain activated the EU’s civil protection mechanism on the weekend of 9 November, following the flooding in the Valencia region. France and Portugal have provided material support for waste management. Other European countries have offered to help, according to the European Commission on Tuesday 12 November.
“We will, of course, activate all the European solidarity mechanisms at our disposal”, stated Carlos Cuerpo, who met Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Budget Johannes Hahn and Secretary-General of the European Commission Ilze Juhansone in Brussels. An estimate of the total impact of the ‘DANA’ depression in the affected areas is underway, in order to determine the amounts needed so that a request can be made for “funds available from the EU Solidarity Fund”, in particular, explained the Spaniard.
Spain intends to use “all the flexibility available for the use of cohesion funds” and the funds from the reserve for crises in the agricultural sector. The country also intends to reallocate “funds from the Next Generation EU recovery plan”, according to the Spanish Minister for the Economy. The minister is inspired by Slovenia, which has reallocated “funds not yet used to these priority objectives of rebuilding the affected areas”. Spain wants to include a “specific assistance for Valencia” by amending the addendum to the recovery plan.
Part of the reallocation of structural funds “can be reallocated to activities linked to the environment and climate issues”, he said. The minister states that Spain is working with the Commission to finalise all the details before the end of the year. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)