In a resolution on the devastating floods in Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, approved on Thursday 19 September by show of hands, MEPs express dissatisfaction with recent budget cuts to the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism. They call for sufficient and upgraded funding to increase preparedness and improve capacity building, with a particular view to the next multi-annual EU budget. They also want the EU Solidarity Fund to be “commensurate to the increasing number and severity of natural disasters in Europe”, urge the Commission to accelerate the mobilisation of funding to affected countries, and ask for other technical and financial support, such as cohesion policy instruments, to be made available.

In the long-term, the resolution calls for more EU investment in regional and local resilience and demands the future EU cohesion policy focus even more on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Strengthen adaptation to climate change

MEPs want the Commission to present a European Climate Adaptation Plan quickly, including concrete legislative proposals, as announced in President von der Leyen’s political guidelines for the 2024-2029 Commission, to strengthen EU resilience, adapt to the impacts of climate change, and coordinate national actions on preparedness, planning and cross-border cooperation. They also highlight the need for urgent investment in flood management and flood risk prevention measures.

Background

In the past 30 years alone, floods in Europe have affected 5.5 million people, taking almost 3,000 lives and causing more than EUR 170 billion in economic damage. The summer of 2024 was the hottest on record globally and in Europe.

The frequency and intensity of natural disasters in Europe is increasing. Largely due to climate change and urbanisation, Europeans have had to deal with more extreme weather including heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, floods and storms in recent years.

Natural disasters in Europe

As the European Environmental Agency points out, global temperatures have been increasing, with 2023 being the warmest year in more than 100,000 years. In addition, Europe is the fastest-warming continent and temperatures are predicted to rise even further.

This often results in extreme weather conditions, such as droughts and wildfires. For instance, the record drought of 2022 was aggravated by wildfires consuming 900,000 hectares in southern Europe – an area the size of Corsica. In 2023, wildfires burned an additional 500,000 hectares, primarily in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

However, the impact of climate change is not limited to extreme heat: it has also led to severe flooding across Europe. In the past 30 years, floods have affected 5.5 million people in the EU, caused 3,000 deaths and more than €170 billion in economic damage.

In 2021, floods in Germany and Belgium caused more than 200 deaths and €44 billion worth of damage. In 2023, the damage in Slovenia was estimated at 16% of the country’s gross domestic product and the financial loss from storm Daniel in Greece was estimated at billions of euros. Devastating floods hit Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia in September 2024.

These natural disasters do not only result in material damages and the loss of life, but also affect ecosystems, agriculture, water supplies, health, energy security, food security, infrastructure, tourism, and can cause threats to the economy and financial markets.

What can the EU do to tackle and recover from natural disasters?

Civil Protection Mechanism

When an emergency hits, the EU can activate its Civil Protection Mechanism in the first instance. It is a mechanism to organise and coordinate an emergency response between the participating states, which include all EU countries as well as 10 other European countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Türkiye, and Ukraine).

The Civil Protection Mechanism offers on-the-ground logistical and operational support to improve prevention, preparedness, and response to disasters.

Solidarity and Emergency Aid Reserve

Since 2021, the Solidarity and Emergency Aid Reserve (SEAR) merges two mechanisms to streamline the aid process, allowing for both faster and more flexible emergency efforts and for long-term recovery efforts: the former European Emergency Aid Reserve and the EU Solidarity Fund.

During the revision of the EU’s long-term budget for 2021-2027, approved in 2024, the maximum budget for the SEAR was increased from €1.2 billion to €1.5billion.

The Solidarity and Emergency Aid Reserve provides rapid financial response to all kinds of emergencies like natural disasters or humanitarian crises in EU countries or their neighbours. For example, it provided support to Türkiye after two earthquakes in 2020 and 2023. It can quickly disburse funds to help with immediate humanitarian aid and rescue efforts such as the provision of food, shelter, medical assistance, and transport and logistics, as well as reconstruction.

Within the Solidarity and Emergency Aid Reserve, the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF) offers more long-term financial support to EU countries or candidate countries mainly in the event of a major natural disaster such as a flood, forest fire, earthquake, storm or drought, or since 2020 a major public health emergency, such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than €8.2 billion has been paid out for various recovery efforts since the fund was set up in 2002. Flooding is the most commonly funded event while the largest amounts have been allocated for recovery efforts following earthquakes.

EU Cohesion Policy

Another tool for long-term recovery and reconstruction are funds from the EU Cohesion Policy to rebuild infrastructure, repair damaged public services, and improve disaster preparedness for future emergencies.

Within the Cohesion policy, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) can provide support for infrastructure and the European Social Fund (ESF+) supports social recovery efforts such as training or psychological support.

The EU Cohesion Fund is primarily used to invest in environment and transport in the less prosperous EU countries, but can be used to finance disaster prevention, recovery, and rebuilding in the covered sectors.

Improving preparedness

While natural disasters can occur anywhere and anytime, the level of preparedness by countries and societies plays a crucial role in mitigating their impact.

The EU has many policies and initiatives that aim to build resilience. Through the European Green Deal, the EU aims to be climate-neutral by 2050 and tackle the global warming that drives many of the natural disasters. With tools such as the EU Adaptation Strategy, the EU wants to become climate resilient.

MEPs call for more funding and faster response to natural disasters

In October 2024, Parliament approved a European Commission’s proposal to mobilise the European Union Solidarity Fund to help Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Greece and France repair damages from extreme flooding and cyclones in 2023.

A month earlier, MEPs had called for more funding to strengthen EU preparedness to respond to natural disasters and highlighted the need for urgent investment in flood management and flood risk prevention measures.

Parliament called for faster allocation of money from the EU Solidarity Fund. In addition, the MEPs suggested that the future EU Cohesion Policy should focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation even more and that the Commission should present a European Climate Adaptation Plan.

The flexible use of other EU funds can also offer relief in the aftermath of natural disasters. In December 2024, Parliament approved rules to allow the use of the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund and European Social Fund Plus for quick and flexible funding of recovery efforts. The rules will apply retroactively to offer help for natural disasters that have occurred after 1 January 2024.

Additionally, Parliament also allowed the use of unspent money allocated for rural development to assist disaster-affected farmers, forest holders and small businesses active in agriculture and forestry.

Some warn that unless clearly allocated, money will inevitably flow to industrial projects that fit with the Commission’s competitiveness agenda, leaving unprofitable but no-less-urgent environmental programs unfunded.

“[There’s a] real danger that biodiversity will be sidelined in favour of industrial priorities that may be presented as green investments,” said Ester Asin, director of the WWF European Policy Office.

The EU is already facing an estimated €37 billion annual biodiversity funding gap, according to the Commission.

In the proposed new budget structure, Europe’s existing €5.45 billion environmental funding program, known as LIFE, would merge with other funds dedicated to digitalization and defense into a €409 billion competitiveness cash pot. Money previously earmarked specifically for biodiversity has also now been merged with a catch-all “environment and climate” target.

The overall amount dedicated to funding green priorities will increase, the Commission argues, because 35 percent of the total budget — roughly €700 billion — will be dedicated to reaching the goals of the EU Green Deal.

Around 43 percent of the Competitiveness Fund will go toward climate and environmental objectives, the Commission said Wednesday, to contribute to this overarching target.

But the intensity of the rainfall that hit areas around Spain’s third-largest city, Valencia — in some places, roughly a year’s worth of rain in a single day — exposed the country’s unreadiness and led the Socialist-led national government to slam the center-right regional authorities for failing to pass on early warnings to people in danger.

Valencia’s regional government, which is responsible for coordinating emergency services in the affected areas, admitted that it had only sent out a text message warning residents of the impending catastrophe at 8:12 PM, eight hours after the first floods were reported, and 10 hours after Spain’s National State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) issued an alert highlighting “extreme danger” across the Valencia region.

By the time the Valencian authorities acted “the situation had already escalated significantly,” said an official from the national Ministry for the Ecological Transition.

“It is the regional governments in Spain who handle the warning systems and hold the authority to send alerts to citizens’ mobile phones to restrict mobility when necessary … Why this considerable delay in sending alert messages to mobile phones, advising against traveling or going to workplaces? We don’t know,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to speak about the politically explosive matter.

The regional government’s brief message, which warned of heavy rainfall and advised locals to stay indoors, came too late for many who found themselves trapped in low-lying homes, shops and roadways that were quickly overwhelmed by rapidly moving floodwaters.

By Wednesday afternoon, at least 92 people were confirmed dead, said the government official. Spain’s Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Victor Torres said that the scale of the material damages is “incalculable,” before adding: “We cannot yet give official figures on missing persons, which underscores the tremendous magnitude of this tragedy.”

BRUSSELS, July 16 (Reuters) – Following are some reactions to the European Commission’s proposal on Wednesday for a 2 trillion euro ($2.31 trillion) EU budget for 2028-2034. The proposal places a new emphasis on economic competitiveness and defence while aiming to reform the rules around farm and economic development subsidies.

An agreement on the new EU budget requires backing from all 27 member countries and sign-off from the European Parliament.

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SWEDISH GOVERNMENT, IN A STATEMENT

“We can never accept that common EU funds go to countries that don’t respect basic democratic principles and European values”

“We won’t solve the EU’s problems with a bigger budget and increased EU contributions, rather through using current resources in a smarter way and putting money where it is really needed.”

HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN

“Brussels’ proposal can be summed up as a pro-Ukrainian budget, and its aim is clear as day: to send the money of the European people to Ukraine. This Brussels plan is weak even as a basis for negotiation, and we suggest that it be withdrawn and a new one drawn up, not in the interests of (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy and Ukraine, but in the interests of the people of Europe and European farmers.”

DUTCH FINANCE MINISTER EELCO HEINEN,

“The proposed budget is too high. We should not always focus solely on how the EU can spend more, but rather on how existing funds can be spent better”

“This requires tough choices. The financial contribution of the Netherlands to the EU is already significant. We therefore want to see an improvement in our net payment position … As far as the Netherlands is concerned, new instruments for joint debt are therefore not on the table.”

FRANCE’S EUROPE MINISTER, BENJAMIN HADAD

“I welcome the ambition for the new multiannual financial framework presented today by the European Commission”

“I will be … in Brussels on Friday to defend our priorities: the rearmament of the European continent, supporting our competitiveness and technological sovereignty, the income of our farmers, and the creation of our own resources.”

EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT, ANTONIO COSTA

“I welcome the presentation of the proposal on the EU long-term budget by the European Commission, a step which will allow the Council to start working. A budget is not just about numbers— it is the ultimate political decision, a choice about our future, and we need to approach this debate with an open mind and spirit of collective responsibility.”

LEAD MEMBERS OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: SIEGFRIED MURESAN, CARLA TAVARES, SANDRA GOMEZ LOPEZ AND DANUSE NERUDOVA

“This draft budget does not leave sufficient funds for critical priorities including competitiveness, cohesion, agriculture, defence, climate adaptation and the investment necessary for a sustainable economy that works for all.”

“Parliament stands ready to use all its powers to their full extent to ensure that the next long-term budget matches the Union’s ambitions and challenges.”

LINDA KALCHER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF PAN-EUROPEAN THINK TANK STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVES, ON CLIMATE BUDGET

“The inclusion of a 35% climate mainstreaming in the new budget shows the Commission is still serious about supporting decarbonisation efforts across the continent… This is essential to make the 90% climate target by 2040 achievable. It is however a wasted opportunity not to strictly exclude fossil fuel funding from the budget.”

FAUSTINE BAS-DEFOSSEZ, POLICY DIRECTOR AT EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENTAL BUREAU

“A long-term budget based on short-term thinking is a dangerous mistake. There is no competitiveness, security or prosperity on a dead planet. This isn’t just about repealing and merging what’s left of LIFE into a catch-all fund – it’s about dismantling Europe’s only dedicated tool for nature and climate action.”

ANOUK PUYMARTIN, HEAD OF POLICY, BIRDLIFE EUROPE

“This is a devastating blow for European citizens. We are facing a worsening nature and climate crisis, and the proposed long-term EU budget offers no clear path to tackle it. Worse, biodiversity is losing its place in the EU budget with no dedicated funding or clear prioritisation.”

NGO EUROPEAN NETWORK ON DEBT AND DEVELOPMENT (EURODAD)

“The restructuring of the budget puts at risk the EU’s central role in fighting poverty, responding to global crises, and supporting those living in the Global South. The Commission is proposing to merge existing external action instruments into one called Global Europe. This move increases the risk that funding is diverted to serve short-term political gains, rather than used to tackle poverty and inequalities.”

COPA-COGECA, ORGANISATIONS REPRESENTING NATIONAL FARMERS’ AND COOPERATIVES’ ASSOCIATIONS

“Unprecedented budget cuts, the dissolution of the two pillars, a loss of communality and the Commission’s disengagement from its historic agricultural policy, can they be interpreted as anything else than a message of abandonment, indifference, and lack of strategic priority for agriculture and rural communities? With the looming Mercosur deal how can the

European Commission expect to still be heard and trusted by the agricultural community in the years ahead?”

ARNAUD ROUSSEAU, HEAD OF FRANCE’S BIGGEST FARMING UNION FNSEA

“Madame President, your budget and CAP proposal are nothing more or less than a provocation towards the agricultural world. Rethink your approach! There will be no rise in Europe’s power without food rearmament!”

Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Kate Abnett, Simon Johnson, Anita Komuves, Sybille de La Hamaide Editing by Frances Kerry, Aidan Lewis

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