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Flood damage in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler
Photo: Thomas Frey / dpa
According to SPIEGEL information, the new reconstruction fund for the flood areas should be equipped with at least ten billion euros.
The federal and state governments want to split the sum in half.
In contrast to the 2013 flood aid, the amount will not be made available immediately.
Instead, the fund is replenished every year as required, according to the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF).
The federal and state governments want to avoid billions of dollars remaining unused for years.
The 2013 fund was endowed with eight billion euros, of which only around six billion euros were needed.
According to preliminary reports from the state government there to the BMF, the current damage in Rhineland-Palatinate alone should have been higher this year than the total damage in 2013. The governments of the countries affected are still in the process of taking stock of the damage.
Next Tuesday at the meeting of the federal and state levels on the flood disaster, more precise figures should be available.
Then the final volume of the fund should be determined.
Countries make advance payments
The damage to the federal infrastructure in the affected areas adds up to at least two billion euros.
Three quarters of this is accounted for by rail lines, a quarter on motorways and federal highways.
The costs for the repair of the federal traffic routes are also to be financed from the flood aid fund, but are entirely at its expense.
According to information from SPIEGEL, the federal states have so far provided advance payments for the emergency aid for the flood areas that the federal and state governments have already provided.
The Ministry of Finance has not yet received any requests for reimbursement from the federal states.
As with the medium-term flood aid fund, the federal and state governments want to share the costs of emergency aid.
rei