EU OKs 446 mn euros in aid for 2023 floods in Italy

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 23 - 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. (ANSA).