Subject: Spanish Government’s dereliction of duty in applying for aid and other instruments to compensate the victims of the natural disaster in Valencia
Heavy rainfall in Spain in has caused catastrophic floods in Valencia This has led to untold human – more than 221 dead and hundreds reported missing in the days following the disaster – and material losses, aggravated by the mishandling of the autonomous and central governments.
The state of affairs in the Valencian Community is so shocking that, according to some media reports, the Commission has acknowledged that Spain, one week after the disaster, has still to apply for assistance from the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism for all the victims left to fend for themselves by the various public authorities. As of the date of reply to this question:
1. Can the Commission list all the instruments – and, if applicable, say how many of them – available to Spain to respond to this disaster and help the victims?
2. Which of the above instruments – and, if applicable, say how many of them – has Spain applied for?
3. Does the Commission consider that the delay in applying for such aid or the failure to request it may have caused harm to the victims of this tragedy?
Supporters1
Submitted: 7.11.2024
1 This question is supported by Members other than the author: Jorge Buxadé Villalba (PfE), Hermann Tertsch
(PfE), Juan Carlos Girauta Vidal (PfE), Margarita de la Pisa Carrión (PfE), Jorge Martín Frías (PfE)
Answer given by Ms Lahbib on behalf of the European Commission
(7 February 2025)
In the context of the devastating floods in eastern Spain, Spain proactively requested the activation of the EU Copernicus satellite mapping system (1) on 29 October 2024 and over 80 satellite maps have been produced.
Spain also activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (2) on 8 November 2024 and several other Member States offered support in that framework. The Commission also deployed two liaison officers.
Spain can also apply for a financial contribution from the EU Solidarity Fund (3). If and when adopted by co-legislators, Spain may also benefit from the flexibilities proposed under the cohesion policy framework in the framework of the recent legislative proposal on the Regional Emergency Support to Reconstruction (4).
Within the European Social Fund Plus (5), flexibilities are proposed to provide immediate support for food and basic assistance, access to healthcare and financing of short-time work schemes.
Support may be provided from other EU funding instruments, such as those under the common agricultural policy (6) including the mobilisation of the Agricultural Reserve or under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (7) for which the recent legislative proposal (8) also provides additional liquidity support to farmers, forest holders and small and medium-sized enterprises affected by natural disasters, still to be implemented under the Rural Development Programmes 2014 — 2022.
The recovery and resilience plan of Spain can also be modified in line with the procedures of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (9) to introduce measures covering reconstruction efforts.
1 1This question is supported by Members other than the author: Jorge Buxadé Villalba (PfE), Hermann Tertsch (PfE), Juan Carlos Girauta Vidal (PfE),
Margarita de la Pisa Carrión (PfE), Jorge Martín Frías (PfE) 1 ∙ ⸱
https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/#zoom=2&lat=13.56036&lon=33.82273&layers=0BT00 2 ∙ ⸱ https://civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu/what/civil-protection/eu-civil-protection-mechanism_en 3 ∙ ⸱ https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/funding/solidarity-fund_en 4 ∙ ⸱
Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council RESTORE — Regional Emergency Support to Reconstruction amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1058 and Regulation (EU) 2021/1057, COM(2024) 496 final. 5 ∙ ⸱ https://european-social-fund-plus.ec.europa.eu/en 6 ∙ ⸱
https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/common-agricultural-policy_en 7 ∙ ⸱
https://commission.europa.eu/funding-tenders/find-funding/eu-funding-programmes/european-agricultural-fund-rural-development-eafrd_en 8 ∙ ⸱ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2024%3A495%3AFIN 9 ∙ ⸱ https://commission.europa.eu/business-economy-euro/economic-recovery/recovery-and-resilience-facility_en
| | ) It is the prerogative of the Member State concerned to decide whether and when to request EU assistance.