Statement by President of the Government during visit to areas affected by rising water levels of River Ebro in Aragon

Zaragoza

President of the Government.- Ladies and gentlemen, Madam President of the Provincial Government of Aragon, dear friends, members of the media, a very good day to you all.

You are familiar with the reason for my visit here in Zaragoza today; Aragon, and in particular Zaragoza, have been especially hard hit by rising water levels of the River Ebro which have reached, as you are well aware, levels unseen in the last 20 years.

I would like, in the first place, to express my solidarity with everyone and, most especially, with all those people who have been affected. A great deal of damage has been caused in terms of infrastructure, but also, and above all, to private property, to goods owned by individual citizens: homes, garages, commercial premises, industrial premises, and, above all, to the agricultural sector where many agricultural holdings have been severely affected, including many crops and harvests. Hence, I would like to express, in my own name and on behalf of my government, our solidarity with all those affected.

I would also like to express my gratitude to all those people who have worked to help these people and to limit the damage caused: to the thousand and one people that got up and provided a great service to society as a whole. To the members of the Military Emergency Unit, to the Guardia Civil, to the National Police Force, to the members of the civil protection authorities, to personnel from the Provincial Government of Aragon, to personnel from the Ebro Water Confederation and fire-fighters from the Zaragoza fire department; I would like to thank all of them for their exemplary work in these difficult circumstances.

I would also like to thank the Provincial Government of Aragon for its coordination over the course of recent days. Since last weekend, I have been in contact with the President of the Provincial Government, as has my government with members of her provincial government. And during this last week we have drawn up, together with them, a raft of measures that we have approved this morning to help alleviate the damage caused. We will hand you a note with the content of the Royal Decree Law, as I don't want to bore you all with the details. However, I would like to say a few words.

Firstly, there is no final estimate of the damage caused. It is very difficult to make a final estimate of the damage caused when, among other things in the Royal Decree Law, we have provided a two-month term for those whose goods or interests have been affected to make the corresponding claim and substantiate the damage caused. Hence, to speak today about a final estimate makes little sense but, at any event, it is true that the damage caused is significant.

Secondly, I would like to say that, despite there being no final estimate of the damage, we are now going to start to implement measures.

We have also provided in this Royal Decree Law, and this is important, that its effects may also apply to other damage caused between now and 31 May 2015 without the need to enact a new Royal Decree Law. Let's hope this is not necessary and that events like these of the last few days in Aragon are not repeated; but if they are, we believe that it is better to be prepared.

I would also like to say to you that the measures will be applied to all the municipalities affected and that they seek to alleviate the different types of damage caused because the types of damage have indeed been quite different, ranging from personal injury, material damage, damage to agricultural holdings and to livestock, to commercial and industrial premises. We will also cover expenses and work done to combat the flooding. The State will apply emergency procedures to all work carried out to restore infrastructures. We will also help the different municipalities and a series of tax, employment and Social Security benefits will be established.

We will then hand out - if indeed this hasn't already been done - the document which contains all those aspects I have summarised because, I repeat, I do not wish to bore you with the facts and figures.

In short, what I would like to say is that very significant damage has been caused; what we need to do now is repair it with speed and with diligence; we need our public institutions to comply with our obligations and we need to coordinate efficiently among ourselves.

I will close by thanking the President of the Provincial Government of Aragon and the members of her government once again. They have helped us to draft this Royal Decree Law which we will approve during the course of today. We have tried to draft this as quickly as possible. This is the first Council of Ministers to be held since the events; it always takes place on a Friday, as you are all aware. And we will be quick and flexible when trying to resolve the serious problems that have affected our citizens.

Aside from that, if you have any questions, but only on this issue please. Should you have any queries or want to ask me anything.

Q.- Mr Rajoy, would you tell us how much aid will be specifically allocated to Aragon; there was talk of the figure of 11.4 million euros?

President of the Government.- In case any of you didn't hear the question, your colleague asked about the amount to be allocated to Aragon. As I said before, it is impossible, at today's date, to know exactly how much will be allocated to Aragon. What I can say to you, which is the most important thing, is that both the Government of Spain and the regional government will obviously spend whatever is necessary to help return the situation to how it was before the serious flooding took place. But at this time it is impossible, as whilst we know that some roads have been left in a bad state, there are other things that it is impossible to determine at this time. I said earlier that all individuals that have been affected have a deadline of two months to make a claim in relation to the damage caused, which means that until such time, we cannot know the final amount.

In principle, the Royal Decree Law is open-ended and, as I said earlier, we have even included a clause stating that any further damage caused between now and 31 May 2015 will be covered. In other words, it is not possible today to say exactly how much damage has been caused and hence, we cannot say how much we will allocate to alleviating this; but what we can say is that we will try to resolve all the problems caused by the flooding.

Q.- Do you plan to clean up the River Ebro?

I also wanted to ask you why you have chosen these locations to make your visit, which are a considerable distance from the effects of the flooding.

President of the Government.- As regards your first question, I am now going to meet with all the mayors and I will comply with the technical criteria offered. Neither myself, nor others, are in a position to state what needs to be done on these environmental issues. But, at any event, I will listen today to the needs of the mayors, which is one of the reasons why I am here today and, of course, rest assured that all those measures that can be taken to avoid a repeat of circumstances like these will be taken, should that prove to be necessary from a technical point of view.

In relation to your second question, this visit was organised for me and I go where I am taken; remember that I have just come out of the Council of Ministers and didn't have much time to spare.

Q.- What do you think about the criticism from the leader of the Opposition when he said…?

President of the Government.- Many things could have occurred to me, but, quite frankly, I believe that we are here to resolve problems. I have been talking with the Regional President since last weekend, we have diligently enacted a Royal Decree Law, and, hence, what I want to do is resolve problems. But, of course, taking advantage of these events to make political statements, and even overacting, I sincerely believe that I cannot do this, nor should I. Others, if they believe that this helps in some way, then go ahead. But I respect what everyone does. What is important to me is resolving the problems. This is a situation that has been very difficult, let's hope it doesn't happen again, but the issue at hand is to repair the damage and take those measures and those decisions that help to avoid a repeat of this in the future.

Thank you very much.