Due to high water levels, entire areas in Austria, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania have been flooded. Infrastructure and homes have been swept away, and hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee.
The MEPs complained about recent cuts to the EU disaster service. They want to allocate extra funds in the next multiannual budget to increase disaster preparedness. They also want the EU Solidarity Fund to be 'proportional to the increasing number and severity of natural disasters in Europe.'
In the past thirty years, at least 5.5 million EU citizens have been affected by natural disasters. There were three thousand deaths to mourn and more than 170 billion euros in economic damage.
The increased number of natural disasters is strongly linked to climate warming, according to many MEPs. For example, a new record was broken this year: the summer of 2024 was the warmest ever in the EU. This trend is expected to continue.
To cope with the future situation, there must be more EU investments in ‘regional and local resilience’ in the long term. The future EU policy must also focus even more on adapting to climate change.
In a resolution adopted Thursday regarding the devastating floods, the MEPs expressed their dissatisfaction with recent cuts to the EU civil protection mechanism. They appeal for sufficient and improved financing to enhance preparedness and capacity building, especially in view of the next multiannual EU budget.
Therefore, the (new) European Commission must promptly present a climate adaptation plan, the MEPs believe. This should also include concrete legislative proposals. This has more or less been announced by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for the period 2024-2029.
PvdA MEP Mohsmmed Chahim says ‘this is not the flood of the century, but the century of floods’ and argues that action must be taken. ‘We cannot abandon these people. We cannot abandon these farmers. We cannot afford to hold these debates annually as a reaction to disasters. It is time to take decisive action.’ He advocates for ‘a resilient Europe’ that can cope with the extremes of climate change.
Chahim’s colleague Jeanette Baljeu (VVD) agrees. ‘This disaster, like the floods in the Netherlands in 2021 and the many forest fires in Southern Europe, painfully remind us how climate change increases the frequency and severity of natural disasters.’
She adds: ‘The years of Dutch experience in the fight against water show that we can protect ourselves by targeted investments in water management and by making investments.’