Von der Leyen: States Affected by Floods Free to Use Money from EU Funds

Wroclaw/Bratislava, September 19 (TASR-correspodent) - Countries of the Central Europe, including Slovakia, which have been affected by floods in recent days, will be able to draw money from the EU's Solidarity Fund and Cohesion Fund to help deal with the aftermath of the disaster, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen declared after a meeting with prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in the Polish city of Wroclaw on Thursday. TASR learnt the news from its special correspondent. Up to €10 billion can be used to this purpose from the EU's Cohesion Fund. Discussed at the meeting were ways of how to help the people and regions hit by destructive floods in the most prompt and flexible fashion, with von der Leyen noting that the Copernicus Earth observation component of the European Union Space Programme and satellites have been employed to monitor the development of the floods. The Solidarity Fund money can be used to repair roads, railway lines and bridges, but these resources won't be enough, so a flexible option of using the Cohesion Fund was greenlighted as well. Prime Minister Robert Fico pointed out that "Slovakia is lucky it has had no fatalities caused by these floods" and voiced regret over the fact that this doesn't hold true for the other three neighbouring countries. Fico added that this aid from the EU will boost the trustworthiness of European institutions in the eyes of the Slovak people. The meeting's host, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, thanked von der Leyen for her prompt response. "We needed only 45 minutes to concur on our expectations and to receive satisfying promises from the European Commission," he said. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala claimed that the areas where the floods have wreaked the worst havoc in the Czech Republic are the regions of Olomouc and Morava, with the Government planning to earmark 40 billion Czech crowns (€1.5 billion) to help. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer reported that his Cabinet will allocate a billion euros to deal with the aftermath of floods and draw additional half a billion from the EU aid. mf