Brussels, 02/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - Following a positive roundtable discussion in COREPER (see Europe of 30 august, p.4), at their Gymnich meeting in Elsinor (Denmark) on Friday and Saturday, the EU's foreign ministers repeated that they support the European Commission's strategy of compensating victims of the floods in central Europe. After the first EU discussions at political level of the catastrophe that hit several EU Member States and their neighbours this summer, Danish minister Per Stig Moeller said it was important that the EU showed solidarity with the victims, stressing that the EU supported the Commission's excellent work. Moeller said that the final decision could be taken at the 30 September General Affairs Council, following a sounding out of the views of EU Member States' finance ministers.
Referring to the setting up of a new budget line for natural disasters, Romano Prodi said in Elsinor that the Commission wanted to move from case-by-case action to broader action.