Liz Lynne

EU RESPONDS TO LOCAL MEP'S REQUEST FOR FLOODING AID

The European Commission is understood to be looking favourably on a bid for emergency aid after the recent flooding disaster, and has already been in contact with officials to look at ways the West Midlands region in particular can be helped.

Local Euro MP Liz Lynne has welcomed an intial response by Commissioner Danuta Hubner to her Parliamentary question she submitted after the first wave of floods affected the region. A bid for help under the EU Solidarity Scheme now has an excellent chance of success, especially after the second wave of floods in July clearly took the cost of the total damage over the scheme's threshold of 0.6% of Britain's GDP, or £2.2 billion.

Liz Lynne said: "I understand that Ministers are now in the process of formally applying for help under this scheme, and the signals are that it will be given a favourable hearing. Even though this scheme is retrospective, it is vital that the application is considered as quickly as possible, so that local councils and the Environment Agency can press ahead with confidence on the clean-up and infrastructure repair work in the worst affected areas, most of which are in my West Midlands region constituency.

The scheme is designed to meet the costs of cleaning up after disasters and emergency repairs to infrastructure. It does not cover the cost of restoring damage to private property, but should help to cover the vast cost of the enormous damage suffered during the floods across Worcestershire, from Tenbury Wells, which suffered some of the worst floods in it's history, through Worcester to Upton, and across to Pershore and Evesham on the River Avon.

The floods caused extensive damage in South East Staffordshire and North Warwickshire, with Elford and Fazeley being flooded twice by the River Tame. As well as the costs of rescue work by the emergency services, county councils and the Environment Agency face a huge bill for the costs of repairing roads and damage to drains and culverts across South East Staffordshire and the whole of Warwickshire. Extensive damage was also caused to the centre of Stratford and other towns and villages along the Avon. The County Council in particular would have to shoulder the cost of clearing and repairing damage to drains and blocked culverts there.

Liz said: "I would be most anxious to ensure that the cost of repairing privately owned infrastructure such as the Severn Valley Railway is taken into account in the Solidarity Scheme bid. The railway is vital to the tourist economy of North Worcestershire and South East Shropshire, but has been severely damaged. The fact that the trackbed is owned by a private company should make no difference."

Liz Lynne, who was herself stranded by the floods in the village where she lives, said she would be writing to Ministers to check that the SVR and other privately owned infrastructure would be included.

The MEP added: "I am particularly pleased to hear that Commissioner Hubner has already been in contact with authorities here to discuss how other budgets can be used to help, especially the existing Objective 2 aid budget for the West Midlands region. It would make sense to use this budget to help meet the costs of infrastructure schemes which could reduce the risk of flooding in future. The deadline on approval is December 2008, so it would be hard for new schemes to be agreed by then, but I will be asking her and UK Ministers whether existing infrastructure schemes could be adapted to reduce flooding risks and bid for some of the costs to be met from the Objective 2 pot."

"I think that Gordon Brown now regrets cutting the funding for flood protection last year and will be looking to reverse this error. If the authorities work together, we should get some rapid progress to reduce the flooding risk in the catchment for the River Severn, the River Avon and the River Teme."

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

Liz Lynne MEP tabled the below parliamentary question to the European Commission on the 4th July.

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3573/07

by Elizabeth Lynne (ALDE) to the Commission

Subject:Flooding

Can the Commission outline what European resources may be available to the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom in the aftermath of the severe flooding at the end of June?

Commissioner Hubner replied as follows. UK Ministers have drawn up a bid under the terms of the Solidarity Scheme.

E-3630/07EN

Answer given by Mrs Hübner on behalf of the Commission

The European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF)[1] can provide financial aid to Member States and countries engaged in accession negotiations to the EU in the event of a major natural disaster if total direct damage caused by the disaster exceeds €3 billion (at 2002 prices) or 0.6% of the country's gross national income, whichever is the lower. The threshold applicable to the United Kingdom (UK) in 2007 is thus €3.267 billion.

In exceptional cases, if specific criteria are met, the Fund can be mobilised for disasters that do not reach the normal threshold: 1) for a neighbouring Member State affected by the same major disaster; 2) for extraordinary regional disasters affecting the majority of the population of a region and having serious and lasting effects on its economic stability and living conditions. A condition for activating the Fund is an application by the national authorities of the Member State concerned to the Commission within ten weeks of the date of the first damage. The Council Regulation establishing the Solidarity Fund does not allow the Commission to take the initiative.

The Commission has made the necessary documents available to the UK authorities (application form, application guidelines etc) and - as in all previous cases - stands ready to assist if the UK authorities wish to prepare an application. At the moment of writing the Commission has no confirmed information on the scope and consequences of the UK floods. It is therefore not possible to assess the chances of success if the UK authorities decided to present an application.

It should be recalled that financial assistance from the Solidarity Fund is limited to specific types of emergency operations carried out by the public authorities (as defined by the Regulation), such as reinstating vital infrastructures to working order, cleaning up, providing temporary accommodation or funding rescue services. The Fund cannot compensate for private losses.

As the Solidarity Fund is financed outside the EU budget, aid cannot be paid out immediately but only once the budget authority (Parliament and Council) has adopted an amending budget proposal which the Commission has to present for every case where it considers that the EUSF should be mobilised.

The Commission has been in contact with the UK authorities in order to clarify the extent to which the West Midlands Objective 2 (2000-2006) Programme might fund projects that can alleviate the effects of flood damage. As the closing date for eligible expenditure under the Programme is 31 December 2008, there will be clear difficulty in establishing viable infrastructural investment projects which meet the programme's eligibility criteria and can be completed on time.

The Commission additionally points out that Article 5.2. (e) of Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006[2] stipulates that, under the Regional Competitiveness and Employment objective, European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funds (2007-2013) may be focussed on employment promotion in the environmental sphere through the development of plans and measures to prevent and cope with natural risks (including floods).

For further information on the EU's solidarity fund please follow this link:

http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/g24217.htm