Patten admits delays over Venezuelan flood aid

Date: 23/01/03

EU AID efforts to help Venezuela recover from the floods which devastated the country in 1999 have been plagued by delays, Chris Patten has acknowledged. The external relations commissioner blamed authorities in Caracas for the delays.

For example, there was a protracted discussion over whether EU aided-projects would be exempt from value-added tax, which was only resolved last October.

Although the Commission has spent the €7.15 million it allocated to Venezeula in emergency aid after the December 1999 floods, much of the €55 million subsequently earmarked for reconstruction and flood prevention work has not been.

Patten, responding to a query by Portuguese MEP Sérgio Marques, said that €25 million for projects such as canal building and early warning systems in the state of Vargas had not been released because local bodies had not yet been formed to maintain the new structures.

The 1999 floods in northern Venezuela, where 75 of its 23 million inhabitants live, destroyed some 90,000 homes and left more than 400,000 people in need of shelter.

EU aid efforts to help Venezuela recover from the floods which devastated the country in 1999 have been plagued by delays, External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten has acknowledged.