site.btaEC Grants Advance Eur 2 Mln Payment in Wake of This Year's Disasters

EC Grants Advance Eur 2 Mln Payment in Wake of  This Year's Disasters

Brussels/Strasbourg/Sofia, July 7 (BTA) -  At its Tuesday session
 in Strasbourg the European Parliament approved the extension of
 1,983,600 aid to Bulgaria because of the floodings last summer
(July-August). The funds are expected to be received in
September.

The aid will help this country cope with the damages to public
infrastructure, private homes, agriculture, environment and
business. The motion was supported by 667 MEPs, 31 were against
and 11 abstained.

The European Commission (EC) has decided to grant Bulgaria an
advance payment from the EU Solidarity Fund because of the
disasters in the period between January 30 and February 4, the
Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works said Tuesday.

Two applications have been submitted and approved to date: for
the floodings in mid-June and end-July 2014, for which Bulgaria
has received 10.5 million euro and 1.98 million euro
respectively, the ministry recalls. On April 24, Bulgaria
submitted its third application to the Solidarity Fund because
of the disasters in January 30 - February 4, and on June 24 the
EC adopted a decision for extension of the funds in advance.

The advance payment amounts to 10 per cent of the entire aid
planned for the third application. The rest of the financial aid
 will be extended after the third application is finally
approved and the procedure on approval of budget credits on the
part of the European Parliament and of the Council is closed.
The executive authorities will be able to apply for aid from the
 fund after the final approval of the application in October.

This article is based on reports sent by BTA correspondent in
Brussels Nikolay Jeliazkov.