Brussels, 05/08/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, Portugal requested aid from the European Solidarity Funds for helping meet the cost of the fight against fires. Forest fires are causing havoc in Portugal where they have killed 11 people.
"It is clear that this is a natural disaster", indicated a Commission spokesperson, interviewed about eligibility of this disaster to benefit from the solidarity fund. Nevertheless, it will also be necessary to include the fires under other criteria. In order for Portugal to benefit from the main envelope (EUR 925 million), for national disasters, it will be necessary for the damages to reach 0.6% of its GNP, around EUR 673 million, without counting the amounts repaid by insurance, indicated the Commission. It is very likely that if Portugal benefited from the fund, it would be the envelope reserved for regional disasters, which is an envelope of EUR 75 million. From this amount, only EUR 18.75 million would remain, with the Commission having agreed to grant EUR 30.8 million to Italy for the earthquake in the Molise and Puglia, regions, EUR 16.8 million for dealing with the damages caused in Sicily by the eruption of the volcano at Etna and 8.6 million to Spain for the Prestige oil slick.
Portugal has ten weeks to count from the date of the first damages to submit a compete file for requesting Solidarity funds. The Commission has pointed out that it could also requested certain loans under Structural or FEOGA funds redeployed in the disaster zones