The European Commission is ready to activate the EU Solidarity Fund for the regions affected by the recent floods, the Commission’s press service told Euractiv Poland.
Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that €10 billion from the Cohesion Fund could be made available for countries hit by severe flooding. But Poland, which could receive half of this sum, doubts that it will be enough to compensate for the damage.
“We know that the losses are very large (…). I think that €5 billion for Poland is an adequate amount, but it does not mean that it is sufficient to cover all the losses,” Finance Minister Andrzej Domański (PO, EPP) said last week.
As a result, Warsaw will request the activation of the EU Solidarity Fund, which provides financial assistance to EU member states and candidate countries following major natural disasters and, starting in 2020, major public health emergencies.
The Commission “is open for mobilising the fund, but to do so, it needs an application from the member states,” a spokesman told Euractiv Poland.
“The Commission cannot act unilaterally. The fund may be activated only on the member states’ request,” he explained, adding that no application to launch the Solidarity money has been filed.
However, he also noted that the Solidarity Fund is not an emergency instrument but a tool for post-disaster recovery. Countries have 12 weeks from the date of the first damage to submit an application.
“And countries usually take their time to precisely estimate the losses,” the spokesman said.
Poland has already announced it will apply for support from the Solidarity Fund.
The Solidarity money “will make it much easier for us to prepare and implement the recovery programme,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk (PO, EPP) said last Thursday.
EU Minister Adam Szłapka (Modern Party, EPP) sent a letter to the European Commission last week announcing Warsaw’s intention to use the EU Solidarity Fund.
“Due to the scale of the damage, Poland will apply for financial assistance from the EU Solidarity Fund,” he said, adding that an official application would be submitted as soon as the scale of the damage is assessed.
PO MEP Bogdan Zdrojewski appealed last week “to modify, make more flexible and expand” the Solidarity Fund, while his PiS colleague Michał Dworczyk (ECR) called for all European Parliament sessions to be held in Brussels over the next year so that the money saved could be spent on flood victims.
Possible budget amendment
The Polish government does not rule out the need to amend the draft budget for 2025 in order to allocate funds for the reconstruction of the affected regions, Domański told private radio ZET on Monday.
“It will be necessary to increase special reserves in the budget for 2025,” he said, adding that the decision is “a matter of the next two weeks.”
The two billion zlotys (€468 million) that the government has already earmarked to deal with damages is far too little, he argued, saying that the actual losses amount to “tens of billions zlotys.” The government is, therefore, looking for additional sources.
The minister confirmed that the state would ensure the full recovery of the affected regions.
“We speak about real human tragedies, which […] are not the fault of the people who live in the damaged areas. That is why this infrastructure and houses need to be rebuilt, and the state will do it step by step,” he said.
He added that the government was working on new laws and amending existing ones to facilitate aid.
“As soon as this week, we will be passing a whole package concerning the support for the flood victims,” he announced.
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)
Source: euractiv.com
