Members of the Committee on Regional Development (REGI) have an exchange of views on natural disasters throughout Europe this summer (floods, fires), in the European Parliament in Brussels. Opening statements by Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, and by Elisa Ferreira, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms.

Exchange of views on natural disasters throughout Europe this summer (floods, fires) in REGI commitee: opening statements by Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, and by Elisa Ferreira, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms

Title: Exchange of views on natural disasters throughout Europe this summer (floods, fires) in REGI commitee: opening statements by Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, and by Elisa Ferreira, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very pleased to see you after the summer break for our Development and Regional Development Committee. I should like to ask if you can improve the draught agenda immediately as well as the minutes of the meetings of the thirteenth of July this year as they were distributed and also made available online. Now we're going to get to the most important item of this afternoon's meeting.

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, As you well know, I wanted the first item on our agenda this afternoon to be the question of natural disasters which have hit Europe this summer. And I would like you to join me to send a thought to all of the victims throughout all of the European Continent and even victims throughout the world who have been hit harder than ever by these national disasters throughout the world one summer. And the whole EU is in mourning. And we really are thinking of all the victims and families and the relatives, as well as the local authorities who, the first day of these disasters, came forth to try to compensate and clean up all the damages that were caused. So I wanted us to speak to this issue this afternoon with the European Commission and I'd like to very warmly thank Commissioner Elisa Ferreira, who urgently reorganised her schedule, which is very busy so that she could come and be with us this afternoon. Thank you once again for being here with us.

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, Now, as the same time I'm speaking, you can see some pictures of these natural disasters which absolutely ravaged many places. Hundreds, thousands of people lost their lives, houses, neighbourhoods, farmlands, forests were totally destroyed. And we were shocked as to the magnitude of these tests, which have really puzzled us in July. The increased floods hit Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg, Italy, Austria, and Romania, but Turkey as well. And they caused more than 300 deaths and billions of euros of damage.

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, We all remember the unimaginable pictures of the earth and the land that just kind of crumbled in a steady city near Cologne. A huge damages occurred in Wallonia. And our colleague Pascal Arimont, who I was constantly in contact with, inform me of the damages in Flanders as well as Wallonia and as you well know, in our Regional Development Committee, we expressed our solidarity with the regional authorities and said that we were with them in our Commission.

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, In July we have a committee right after this catastrophe, asked to have an oral question to debate in plenary, and I am very grateful to all the coordinators and the members on the political groups for sending us their signatures to this, very swiftly, so we can all submit this question. I know that the EP political groups would like to put this issue on the next plenary and I really hope we will be able to debate on all of these natural hazards, natural disasters in Strasbourg.

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, Now, in addition to these floods, we had heatwaves and forest fires which just ravaged many places in southern Europe and Greece, Italy and France. In Greece, there were 586 fires started and more than 100 acres totally ravaged by flames. Vital ecosystems and many aspects of wildlife were swept away, especially in the region of Olympia and the islands.

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, In Sicily and Calabria, we had to deal with five fires starting up within four days alone with record high temperatures, which were unimaginable more than forty degrees. In the Var, in France, more than 7000 hectares of land were burned. In Spain, a huge fire of 90 kilometres ravaged 12000 hectares of plants and vegetation. And Finland went through the worst forest fire in their history, at least since 1971, and this time deplored the 12.5 times more forest compared to the average of years between 2008-2020.

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, I'm just trying to show all of you that we've got to see the exceptional nature of this catastrophic summer. We've got to keep in mind that what might seem to be exceptional today, might become a permanent phenomenon, because, of course, of climate change. And, globally speaking, the whole world may be subject to these new catastrophes. And in the recent report that I defended for the REGI Commission, for the EU Solidarity Fund, these disasters are only going to get worse throughout the next few coming years and decades, with climate change. And we must keep this in mind in our perspective, work on public and European policies. This is an emergency situation and the European Union must use all the solidarity instruments that they have to try to redress the situation in the regions and areas hit by these natural disasters.

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, We need to use the FSUE and then, we're asking the commissioner to explore any other possibilities within the cohesion policy. And I am absolutely convinced that we will be able to blaze the trail for helping regions to adapt and adopt regional strategies to adapt to climate change.

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, This is a major emergency and great deal of work on our plate in the FSEU for 2021 has been entirely used up for obvious reasons, which of course raises some serious questions for the future, and we're going to have to think as to how to modify the budget for this, because we see that the FSEU has been exceeded and it is no longer going to help us face the emergencies. And this puts Europe in a very difficult situation in order to meet the different needs coming up. And this is why the report that we adopted in the European Parliament is appealing for an increase of budget amounts.

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, So, Madam Commissioner, we would like you to be able to take stock of the details of all the damages as you've been able to see them and tell us specifically what European emergency mechanisms were used, because we must say that the EU really was able to face the problems in a way. And if you could make us aware of the measures taken with the member states and how they reacted after these measures and in implementing solidarity for reconstruction. If you could tell us how we can get involved to achieve this reconstruction? And we'd like to know what measures the Commission is going to take.

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, I will work in the usual way for the debate. First, I will give Madam Commissioner the floor to make a ten minute presentation around. Then I will give the members of the coordinators groups for any issues that I'd like to raise questions and then we'll have a second round where the members may speak. So, Madam Commissioner, thank you for being with us. And you have the floor.

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Dear President Schinas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, you are absolutely right. This exchange is pertinent. It's timely. And I will not repeat everything that you have just said. And of course, our thoughts are with all the people hit by floods or by fires, forest fires and particularly those who lost their loved ones and their livelihoods as Europeans, one of our key values is solidarity. And in crisis, we stand together.

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, First, let me outline our Europe helped in the first hours and days of the disasters upon request from Belgium, from Germany, from Netherlands, the Commission activated the Copernicus's Emergency Management Service. Copernicus produces satellite maps in real time to support the damage assessment and to guide the emergency response. In addition, on the 14th of July, Belgium requested help through the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism and within a few hours, seven member states offered their assistance.

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, In particular, France, Italy and Austria deployed more than 150 rescue workers, more than 30 rescue boats and 2 helicopters through the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism. As far as Greece is concerned, one thousand firefighters and rescuers, as well as planes and vehicles from across union were dispatched through the civil protection mechanism to combat the devastating fires and that ravaged the country. This was the immediate response.

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, So where are we now? It is clear that for some reasons, the scale of devastation is such that they will require significant financial investment over the longer term in order to recover and rebuild from the damage. We, in Commission stand ready to mobilise Union Solidarity Fund. At the moment, affected member states are still assessing the damage. So, so far we do not have yet official request for support. However, the size of the damage in most countries is likely to qualify for the European USF as we name it, support. But of course, as you said, we must go further and they'll count on your support in this.

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Recent years, they have made it painfully clear that we must be more proactive in dealing with disaster. It is not enough to respond only after the crisis. We must improve our preparation before a crisis. This is why in cohesion policy, we are putting an increasing focus on resilience and prevention, on climate adaptation and on risk management before a crisis happens. These mitigation measures were already present in the 2014 programmes, 17 member states invested in flood prevention prevention, nine in coastal protection, six in preventing forest fires. And there were various other investments to tackle earthquakes, landslides and drought. But it is clear that more work is needed, and the one twenty 27 programmes offered a possibility of at least three types of measures.

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, First, we have prevention measures to reduce the chance of a disaster. This means preventive preventative infrastructure such as dykes, flood walls, storm water collectors, and water basins. It also means better land management, including greening measures such as reforestation. We should promote and use nature based solutions as many floods are caused by excessive soil sealing, overregulating of rivers and overbuilding. Second, we have preparedness measures so that when disaster strikes, we are ready. This includes rescue vehicles, fire engines, helicopters, but it also includes training measures and civil protection schemes and systems for temporary accommodation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Third, we have recovery measures to rebuild after the disaster, reafforestation after fires, reconstruction after floods, rebuilding after earthquakes. These three set of measures disaster prevention, preparedness and long term recovery are all essential. Our response cannot be limited to the immediate aftermath. So I count on your support to ensure that programmes in your region include all these measures wherever appropriate. Let me give the concrete example of Greece, whose partnership agreement for 21-27 was the first to be adopted on the thirty of July. For the next period there will be a specific operational programme on civil protection aimed at reinforcing the prevention and preparedness of the country to deal with natural disasters.

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, A final word, but the very important one, on financing the Union Solidarity Fund. These last two years floods, fires, earthquakes and other disasters have been all too common and even more intense. European Union Solidarity Fund has been instrumental in the most recently to support the government response to Covid-19 emergencies and to the earthquakes in Croatia. The needs are ever growing, yet resources are dwindling. Upon its inception, European Union Solidarity Fund entailed one billion euro of support annually. We proposed to reinstate this amount in the new MFF 2021-27.

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Unfortunately, this was modified in the course of the MFF negotiations to annual ceiling of one point two billion euros, but shared in equal parts with the emergency aid reserve, and that a newly created solidarity and emergency aid reserve. Calls for our support are likely to grow as competing and equally urgent priorities over these last months show natural disasters in the European Union. Humanitarian emergencies in Ha&iuml;ti, in Afghanistan and the European Union cannot be asked to choose between competing needs for relief and recovery at home and abroad. Personally, I feel we have to be in a position to provide assistance for both sets of goals. I hope I can count on your support as we discuss possible solutions. And I look forward to our discussion today. Thank you very much once again.

Exchange of views on natural disasters throughout Europe this summer (floods, fires) in REGI commitee: opening statements by Younous OMARJEE (The Left, FR), REGI Chair, and by Elisa Ferreira, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms

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