Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-21-Speech-2-675"
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"en.20100921.22.2-675"2
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"Thank you, gentlemen, for your words of recognition, which I am particularly happy to pass on to my colleagues who have worked so hard on this. The rules of the Solidarity Fund state that the threshold value is 0.6% of gross domestic income, which, in the case of Ireland, would currently be EUR 935 million. There is also cover for EUR 3.5 billion of damage, which particularly applies to four of the five largest Member States, which would otherwise only be covered for damage of another dimension altogether. That is one of the reasons why, in 2005, the Commission proposed that the Solidarity Fund be adapted, principally in two respects. The first was that the threshold value or values be made more uniform, resulting both in a lowering of the national threshold and also in the combining of the two categories of national and regional disasters. I have no intention of concealing the fact that on average, we receive twice as many applications for compensation than we are actually able to grant – not for financial reasons, but because the assessment does not allow the European Union to participate in refinancing the costs incurred. Consequently, our aim was to simplify the process, and this should also accelerate it.
As you have seen – including in this case involving Ireland, for instance – it can take eight, nine or ten months. In the case in question, it will probably take a few weeks more for the amount to be actually paid out, so by then, a whole year will have passed. That is partly related to the fact that this Solidarity Fund is an extra-budgetary fund.
Our second objective was to expand the criteria for a disaster. At present, the Solidarity Fund covers only natural disasters. The idea is to expand this to also include technological disasters.
These various proposals were rejected by the Council in 2005. Due to the unfortunate number of disasters that have occurred, I have now embarked on a new initiative. My service is preparing a revised proposal that also takes into account the experiences of the past five years. I hope that some countries that have benefited in recent months from this European solidarity aid will now assist with any amendment, and that we can then have a broader but, above all, faster reacting Solidarity Fund in Europe in the future."@en1
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