Luxembourg – The countries of the European Union gave the green light on Friday to the addendum to the Recovery Plan presented by the Spanish Government to allocate 1.241 billion euros in funds for the recovery of areas affected by the storm and the preparation of a response to natural disasters and other crises.
The ministers of Economy and Finance approved the amendment during a meeting in Luxembourg, after the community executive had already given its approval on September 19.
As explained by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business when requesting the changes, this investment will provide “financial coverage” for expenses already incurred in the form of urgent aid for the reconstruction of municipalities affected by the storm in October of last year in the Community of Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha, and Andalusia.
In addition, it “opens a phase aimed at its resilience and economic modernization” that will allow the creation of strategies to protect the productive fabric against environmental risks and economic vulnerabilities, such as those related to international trade or sudden tariff changes.
The addendum focuses on issues such as the recovery of transport infrastructure damaged by the storm, the rehabilitation of water infrastructure, the improvement of monitoring of climatic phenomena, or the evaluation of support programs for the internationalization of companies affected by the storm.
Apart from this measure, the European Commission approved last week the disbursement of 945 million euros from the EU Solidarity Fund and redirected 645 million euros in cohesion funds to Spain to address the consequences of the storm in October 2024.
This last part still needs to be approved by the member states and the European Parliament. (October 10)