European Parliament
Milan Gaľa (PPE-DE ).
(SK)
Last week, eastern Slovakia was hit by dangerous flooding in several river basins. Floods such as these have become extremely common over the past few years – flash floods caused by heavy rain in a particular area. The European Union is seeking to help deal with the aftermath of floods and other disasters through allocations from the Solidarity Fund; however, a limit has been imposed of approximately 0.6% of the affected country’s GDP or at EUR 3 billion, which in many instances is an excessive amount, despite the extensive losses. I would be very much in favour of revising this limit downwards. Floods are natural phenomena that need to be anticipated and the effects prevented. I am pleased that in this session we are going to debate a flood assessment and management report shedding new light on how the implications of this global phenomenon ought to be tackled, especially with regard to prevention.

