The European Parliament on Tuesday approved more than one billion euros in aid from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) to help five countries recover from severe floods in 2023.
The aid will be distributed between Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Greece and France.
The financial aid is intended for the repair of infrastructure, protection of cultural heritage and clean-up operations.
Italy will receive the largest share – a total of 378.8 million euros for the Emilia-Romagna region and 67.8 million euros for Tuscany.
Slovenia will receive 428.4 million euros, while Greece and France will receive 101.5 million euros and 46.7 million respectively.
Austria will also receive 5.2 million euros in aid.
Expressing their “deepest solidarity with all victims”, MEPs warned of the increasing frequency of natural disasters across Europe and called for an expansion of the EUSF budget.
The aid package was approved by an overwhelming majority of 632 votes.
Since its establishment in 2002, the EUSF has provided more than EUR 8.6 billion in aid for 130 disasters in 24 EU member states and four candidate countries.
