Resolution on the floods in Europe

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the floods in Europe.

The resolution was tabled by the S&D, EPP, ECR, ALDE, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGLgroups.

It refers to the floods in many European countries including Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, France and Spain, and notes the serious damage to populations, cities, towns and municipalities. Acknowledging that the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism helped Member States to cooperate and minimise the effects of the emergency, Parliament wants to see simplified rules and procedures for activation of the Mechanism. It also highlights the opportunity under the European Territorial Cooperation objective for Member States and the regions concerned to target risk management as an investment priority for the forthcoming programming period currently under negotiation.

Members call on the Council and the Commission to take all the necessary steps to ensure that rapid, adequate financial assistance is provided from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF). They call on the Commission to draft a new, simplified EUSF Regulation which would, inter alia, enable the Commission to make down-payments as soon as the affected Member State has applied for assistance.

The Commission and Member States are asked to pay particular attention to planning and reviewing sustainable land use policies, ecosystem absorption capacities and best practices and to increasing the capacity of flood-control and drainage systems, in view of the fact that soil degradation, driven or exacerbated by human activity, such as inappropriate agricultural and forestry practices, damages the capacity of soil to continue to perform in full its crucial function of preventing natural disasters.

Parliament highlights the fact that investment in flood prevention under the relevant programmes requires adequate financial resources, as it is an important tool in enabling the governments of the Member States to develop and implement flood prevention policies. Investment in support of disaster prevention should follow an eco-system-based approach.