Brussels, 08/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - By adopting a report on Tuesday by German Christian-Democrat Rolf Bernd on the European Commission's proposal on the regulation establishing a European Solidarity Fund, the European Parliament's Regional Committee voted in favour of the rapid setting up of such a fund, that should allow for swift reaction in case of disasters affecting EU countries and candidate countries (like the floods that struck Central Europe this summer). Parliament, which is simply consulted in this affair, must now decide at Thursday's plenary in Brussels. The regional committee adopted several amendments in which, according to the funds should be used in "major disasters". According to MEPs, the term "natural, technological or environmental disasters" proposed by the Commission risked raising problems of definition in the field of regulation application and therefor, could make procedures more complicated. According to another amendment, Member States could have a three month deadline (instead of two months proposed by the European Commission) to present their aid requests, given that the mass of information outlined has to be sent in order to justify the request.