Alex Trelinski
SPAIN’S government has asked for €4.4 billion from the European Union Solidarity Fund to help pay for relief work following the October 29 floods in Valencia.
The Ministry of Finance has filed an application with the European Commission which will decide on what sum to award.
The final amount could be lower than requested as the EU has already provided money to help in the disaster aftermath and ‘double financing’ is not permitted.
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On November 4, Spain’s Finance Minister, Maria Jesus Montero, told the European Commission that the country planned to apply to the Solidarity fund, but has gone ‘to the wire’ as the 12-week deadline for support ends on Tuesday.
In a letter to the Commission, Montero states that ‘the Spanish government, together with regional and local authorities, has mobilised all possible resources to alleviate the damage and directly help the citizens affected by the catastrophe, carrying out the largest deployment of troops seen in Spain during peacetime’.
The Commission will now carry out an evaluation, and the subsidy then has to be approved by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.
“This whole process is relatively long and can last several months,” the Finance Ministry warned.
The government has been criticised by opposition parties like the Partido Popular for taking so long to apply for the money.
Once the aid has been paid, the government would be responsible for allocating it, but emergency measures can be financed retroactively from the first day of the disaster.
