The European Council on Monday gave
the definitive green light to 446 million euros in aid from the
European Solidarity Fund for the floods in Emilia-Romagna and
Tuscany in May 2023 that left 17 people dead and caused billions
of euros of damage.
The two Italian regions will receive 378.83 million and 67.81
million euros respectively.
The assistance is part of a larger package of just over one
billion euros in aid, which will also go to Slovenia, Austria,
Greece and France, for extreme weather events last year.
At the weekend the Italian government declared a new State of
Emergency in Emilia-Romagna and the neighbouring Marche region
following another wave of devastating floods.
The European Commission, meanwhile, said Monday that it has
proposed allocating 119.7 million from the agricultural reserve
of the CAP to directly support farmers in Italy, Bulgaria,
Germany, Estonia and Romania affected by exceptional "adverse
weather conditions in spring and early summer" this year.
Italian farmers will get 37.4 million euros of that money if
member States approve the move.
This will contribute to compensating farmers who have lost part
of their production and as a result, part of their income, the
Commission said.
Scientists say the climate crisis caused by human greenhouse gas
emissions is making extreme weather events such as heatwaves,
droughts, supercharged storms and flooding more frequent and
more intense.
Although there are many sources of the greenhouse gases that are
causing global heating, the main driver is the burning of fossil
fuels such as oil, gas and coal, sales of which generate huge
profits for the world's energy giants.
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