Flood relief on standby

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 20/04/06

The European Commission said this week that it stood ready to provide financial assistance to countries affected by the floods in south-east Europe.

Following devastating floods that have ravaged areas around the Danube and Sava rivers, killing dozens and destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria, the Commission said it would provide help if it was requested.

Krisztina Nagy, a spokesperson for Olli Rehn, the enlargement commissioner, said the Commission had so far received no requests for assistance.

"The situation is that none of the countries has asked for assistance. We are happy to look into the possibilities, if we can help in any way," she said.

Nagy said that as acceding countries Bulgaria and Romania were entitled to funds under the European Union Solidarity Fund, set up after floods devastated central Europe in 2002.

Under current rules, to qualify for this assistance damage may have to exceed 3 billion euro or represent 0.6% of gross national income (GNI) - around 300 million euro for Romania or 100m euro for Bulgaria - unless the Commission decides to waive these rules.

The Commission has already expressed the view that the threshold for assistance may be too high.

Twelve months ago the Commission proposed to lower the threshold for assistance to 1bn euro worth of damage or 0.5% of GNI, although a deal has not yet been reached.

Following floods last year, the Commission released 90m euro as part of the solidarity fund to help Romania and Bulgaria as well as granting them assistance for civil protection facilities from a separate fund.

The two countries have ten weeks from the start of the floods to apply for aid.

Meanwhile Serbia, which has seen its capital Belgrade submerged, could receive pre-accession assistance, but any money would be taken from existing aid.

Article reports that the European Commission said that it stood ready to provide financial assistance to countries affected by the floods in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia in April 2006.