Brussels, 13/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - After the destruction caused by flooding in May and August 2005, the Bulgarian authorities requested aid from the European Commission to reimburse the cost of emergency measures such as rescue services, cleaning up of disaster stricken areas and the restoration of basic infrastructures to working condition. In response to this request, the European Commission has proposed aid of 20.35 million euro from the European Solidarity Fund to help Bulgaria deal with the consequences of these floods. An aid amount of 9.72 million euro is proposed for the floods of May and 10.63 million for the floods of August. Total damages are estimated at around 222 million euro for the floods starting in May and at around 237 million for the August floods. Severe damage was caused to agriculture, buildings, electricity and infrastructure networks, transport and communication. The floods also caused damage to cultural heritage sites.
The Commission adopted the proposal through written procedure in December. For the money to become available, the proposal has to be accepted by the budgetary authority, the EP and Council. There then has to be a financing agreement between the Commission and the Bulgarian authorities. European Commissioner Danuta Hübner said that this decision was “an expression of the European Union's solidarity with the affected regions of Bulgaria”, an EU accession country.