The Commission wants to change European Union regulations so that funds can be made available quickly in cases of natural disasters. Floods in Europe in September also caused changes.
The European Commission announced this Monday that it wants to change the financing rules of the European Union (EU) cohesion policy for member states affected by natural disasters, a proposal that comes after Portugal requested 500 million euros for losses for the fires.
In a statement, the community executive announced that it had taken “new measures to support Member States affected by unprecedented climate disasters”thus proposing “amendments to three EU regulations to ensure that European funds can be mobilized quickly to support recovery after a disaster.”
“These proposals are a direct response to the forest fires that devastated Portugal in September 2024 and the floods that affected the countries of Central and Eastern Europe“says the European Commission, indicating that a total budget of around 18 billion euross for seven Member States.
Thus, if the proposal receives the green light from the countries (in the Council) and from the MEPs (in the European Parliament), Portugal, Poland, Romania, Austria, Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia could receive around 17.7 billion euros in the framework of the European Regional Development Plan. (ERDF) and the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and €588 million from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) for support in the context of climate-related disasters and preparation for future disasters.
Questioned by Lusa, official source of the European Commission He refused to specify the amount that will be allocated to Portugal given the necessary legislative process underway and because “it is now up to Member States to verify the damage.”
“There are still only very initial evaluations and what we are doing is changing the rules of the cohesion funds so that Member States can then request community support”, while, “in the case of Portugal, the damage of the fires”. ”said the same source.
The announcement comes after, a month ago, the Portuguese Prime Minister stated have received the green light from the European Commission that Portugal quickly use €500 million from the Cohesion Fund in the coming years to cover losses caused by forest fires.
“The dialogue with the president of the European Commission led to the decision to allow Portugal to access 500 million euros of the cohesion funds that have been allocated to it for the coming years and can now cover the losses suffered, with a rate of contribution that exceptionally can even be 100%,” Luís Montenegro declared then.
The changes affect the regulations for the 2021-2027 programming period, as well as the framework regulations for 2014-2022.
The ERDF is one of the main financial instruments of the EU’s cohesion policy, while the ESF+ aims at economic and social cohesion and the EAFRD is one of the five European structural and investment funds.
Quoted in Monday’s statement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks of “new flexibilities to help Member States recover, repair and rebuild.”
“The proposals presented today demonstrate that we are delivering on these promises: by injecting liquidity through increased pre-financing and co-financing from EU funds, we are concretely helping the people and regions severely affected by these disasters,” concludes Ursula von der Leyen. .
When the proposal is adopted, countries must decide how much to use and how, and then submit a request to the European Commission with changes to the programs for review and adoption.
Source: Observadora
