The EU grants Spain €946 million from the Solidarity Fund to alleviate the effects of the DANA in Valencia

The European Commission has approved the decision granting Spain €946 million from the EUSF to alleviate the devastating effects of the DANA that severely affected the Valencian Community and other parts of the country at the end of last year.

This decision follows the formal request sent by the Ministry of Finance to the EU authorities on 20 January this year, justifying that the disaster qualified as major in nature. In the request, Spain put the public expenditure eligible for funding at €4.304 billion out of the total of €18 billion in damages.

The approved aid represents a historic milestone as the second highest granted by this solidarity mechanism since its creation in 2002, behind only the €1.2 billion received by Italy in 2017 for the earthquakes that devastated the centre of the country. This underlines both the exceptional gravity of the disaster and the success of the Government of Spain's efforts to mobilise European support.

In fact, this figure represents 81% of the total Solidarity Fund for the year, which amounts to a total of €1.167 billion. In addition to the funds earmarked for Spain, the Commission will allocate €110.84 billion to France, following cyclones on its islands of Mayotte and Réunion in December 2024 and February 2025, respectively.

The final amount, of which a total of €100 million was already received in advance in April, will be used to complement the enormous financial efforts being made by Spanish public administrations. In particular, it will be used to reimburse part of the public expenditure for emergency and recovery operations, such as the restoration of basic infrastructure, relief services, temporary accommodation of the population, and the clean-up of disaster areas.

The First Vice-President and Minister for Treasury, María Jesús Montero, recalled last January, during the request for aid, that from the very first moment the Government released "all possible resources to help citizens, carrying out the largest deployment of troops from the state law enforcement forces and agencies ever carried out in Spain in times of peace". The vice-president stressed at the time that "this European aid is a recognition of that effort and a fundamental boost for reconstruction".

Reprogramming of €645 million from cohesion policy

In addition to Solidarity Fund assistance, the Commission has given the green light to proposals to reprogramme various cohesion policy fund programmes to mobilise more resources for the affected areas. This approval comes in the framework of the new RESTORE Regulation, which allows funds to be earmarked for reconstruction work following natural disasters.

In total, the Commission has approved the reallocation of €645 million, bringing the total EU funding for recovery in the areas affected by the DANA to €1.6 billion.

Next steps for the EUSF

Once the European Parliament and the Council approve the Commission's proposal for EUSF funds, the Ministry of Finance will initiate, in coordination with the Generalitat Valenciana and the other affected administrations, the procedures to ensure that the funds are distributed and applied with maximum efficiency and transparency, guaranteeing that they contribute directly to the recovery of the damaged territories.

Origin of the Solidarity Fund

The EUSF was created in response to the devastating floods that hit Central Europe in the summer of 2002. Since then, it has become established as the EU's main tool for responding to major natural disasters, reflecting European solidarity.

Spain has drawn on this fund on several occasions, including the Prestige crisis in 2003, the Lorca earthquake in 2011, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the eruption of the volcano on La Palma in 2022.

With the current allocation, Spain will have received more than €1.1 billion from the EUSF since its creation, consolidating the EU's support to Spain in the most difficult times.

Non official translation