Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The European Union Council in Brussels today approved the Commission's proposal to provide a total of €454.8 million in disaster relief aid to Romania and Italy, to repair damage caused by natural disasters in 2022, and to Turkey, in relation to earthquakes in February 2023. It will come from the 2023 EU budget. .
According to a statement issued by the Union institutions, in practice, the European Union will transfer funds from the solidarity reserve and emergency aid in its 2023 budget to the so-called operating budget line of the European Solidarity Fund, where it can be paid to countries that have applied for financial assistance from this fund. After exposure to natural disasters.
The EU Solidarity Fund is designed to provide financial assistance in the event of a major disaster in a member state or a country conducting accession negotiations with the EU.
The aid will be distributed as follows:
EUR 33.9 million to provide assistance to Romania in the face of severe and widespread drought with three major peaks, respectively, at the end of March and mid-April and in July and August 2022.
20.9 million euros to provide assistance to Italy after heavy rains resulting from river floods and torrents that affected regions of central Italy in September 2022
400 million euros to provide assistance to Turkey in the face of the major earthquakes that struck southern Turkey in the Kahramanmaraş and Hatay regions in February 2023
Next steps
The financial aid will be paid once both proposals are adopted by the European Parliament and the Council.