Brussels, 20/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - The British Floods Recovery Minister, John Healey, announced in a press release on 6 May that the British government was going to allocate £31 million out of the 100 million received from the European Solidarity Fund for victims from the floods in the United Kingdom last summer. The way the Community's money was being managed prompted Helga Trüpel (German, Greens) to ask what the British government had done with the remaining £79 million.
In a letter addressed to Reimer Böge, the president of the EP's budget committee, on 16 May, Trüpel called on the British minister and European Commissioner responsible for European Solidarity Funds to explain how the allocations to flood victims had been distributed. The Greens MEP said that clarification was required and minister Healey should explain whether the British government had acted in compliance with the rules and spirit of the fund. Ms Trüpel requested Reimer Böge to invite the two protagonists to provide explanations at the next budgets committee on 28 May. (G.B.)