Members of the Committee on Budgets express their “deepest solidarity” with the victims, their families and all individuals affected by the natural disasters in Romania, Italy and Türkyie. They made reference to the “increasing number of severe and destructive natural disasters in Europe”, saying that “due to climate change extreme weather events such as those observed in Romania and Italy resulting in emergencies are going to further intensify and multiply”. The EU should, MEPs say, “strengthen its efforts to tackle climate change both in the Union and globally.”

The European Commission has proposed to use the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) to grant financial assistance to the three countries affected to the value of EUR 454 835 030. EUSF assistance will cover parts of the costs of emergency and recovery operations like repairing damaged infrastructure, securing preventive infrastructure and the protection of cultural heritage, as well as clean-up…