Brussels has granted 5.4 million euros from the EU Solidarity Fund to alleviate a small part of the damage caused by the volcanic eruption of La Palma, in the Canary Islands.
The amount is transferred as an "advance to cover immediate emergency and recovery costs," according to a statement issued Tuesday by the European Commission.
The payment is a consequence of the request for aid by Spain, whose authorities have estimated the total direct damage at 862.7 million euros, according to the Community Executive.
The financial aid is granted just as six months have passed since the beginning of a natural disaster that lasted 85 days, caused 7,000 displaced people and devastated more than 1,200 hectares.
The Community Executive has indicated that the payment will mean financial aid to restore essential infrastructure, such as electricity, water and transport, to cover the costs of temporary accommodation for those who had to flee their homes destroyed or threatened by the languages of fire and to clean up the areas affected by the catastrophe.
"The damage caused by the volcano has aggravated the negative effects of the coronavirus crisis, which has especially affected outermost regions such as the Canary Islands", said the European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, through a statement.
The Portuguese has emphasized the importance of activating both this Solidarity Fund and "other sources of financing available to help citizens overcome this catastrophe and look to the future with renewed hope".
The so-called EU Solidarity Fund was created to respond to major natural disasters by providing solidarity aid from the community bloc to the affected regions;
its origin dates back to the serious floods that occurred in central Europe in the summer of 2002. Since then, it has contributed nearly 7,000 million euros and has been used in nearly a hundred catastrophes, from floods to droughts through earthquakes and forest fires , according to Commission figures.
Spain has received a total of 96.3 million euros as European aid to alleviate natural disasters that have occurred on six occasions, such as the Prestige
oil spill
in 2003 (1.3 million euros received) or the damage caused by weather conditions extreme costs of DANA in 2019 (56.7 million euros).
The solidarity fund mechanism only comes into operation when the total direct damage exceeds 1.5% of the GDP of a region (or 1%, in the case of outermost regions, such as this one).
