Taraba: Damage after Floods Should Amount to Millions of Euros

Bratislava, September 16 (TASR) - The amount of damage after the floods is not yet known, but it should amount to millions of euros, not hundreds of millions or billions like in the neighbouring countries, Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee) noted following an extraordinary cabinet meeting on Monday. According to Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD), there are several options for compensating for the damage. However, he stressed that the emergency situation must first be brought to an end. "The [municipal office] head and the municipality have to identify the extent of the damage, then the process of verifying the costs takes place and at the Interior Ministry, after the end of the emergency situation, we're able to send such an amount to the municipalities within a month or two, and the municipality, of course, coordinates the assistance with individuals," he said. According to him, another mechanism is humanitarian aid, which was announced by Labour Minister Erik Tomas (Voice-SD). Taraba stated that the Environment Ministry wants to prepare a similar aid scheme as in the case of the earthquake that struck eastern Slovakia in October 2023. "Minister Rasi also informed us that he's already in discussion with foreign partners, especially the Poles, who will try to use the possibility of not allocating some of the EU funds so that what they can't use will be spent either on compensation mechanisms during floods or to expand flood protection," added Sutaj Estok. According to the interior minister, Slovakia refused the assistance in flood management offered by Ukraine. "We're in a state of having said thanks, but we're coping with the situation. On the contrary, we discussed today at the headquarters that if the situation and the prediction is as we expect it to be, that we would stabilise the situation in our country in the next few days, we're ready to offer assistance to neighbouring countries, including the Czech Republic, Austria or Poland, where a state of disaster has been declared," he said. am/mcs