EU chief announces billions in support for flood-hit Central European countries on Poland visit

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has promised over €10 billion in EU funds to help countries affected by ongoing floods in Central Europe after meeting with the leaders of Poland, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in the Polish city of Wrocław.

The hastily organised summit was called by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and took place in the southwestern part of Poland that has been devasted by the floods. Across the region, at least 23 people have died so far as a result of the disaster, including at least seven in Poland.

Speaking at a joint press conference after the meeting, von der Leyen said that it had been “heartbreaking to see the destruction and the devastation” caused by the floods but also “heartwarming to see the enormous solidarity between the people in your countries”.

The EU Solidarity Fund can cover parts of the damage.

We can also use the flexibility of the existing cohesion policy rules to mobilise up to €10 billion.

And help communities in 🇵🇱🇨🇿🇸🇰🇦🇹🇷🇴 recover.

Europe stands by your side. pic.twitter.com/hE88RU8qBY

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 19, 2024

She pledged to mobilise €10 billion from the EU’s so-called cohesion funds “as fast and flexibly as possible” as an “emergency reaction” to the crisis. She added that the bloc’s solidarity fund could also be used for rebuilding damaged infrastructure such as roads, bridges and railways.

“Europe stands by your side,” declared von der Leyen.

Speaking alongside her, Tusk expressed his “gratitude for the determination and quick reaction of the leaders” who had attended the summit. He said it had taken them just 45 minutes to agree on details of the EU’s support package.

Tusk added that each country would now prepare and present its own reconstruction plans for their flood-hit areas. The other leaders present – Slovakia’s Robert Fico, the Czech Republic’s Petr Fiala and Austria’s Karl Nehammer – expressed support for the plans outlined by von der Leyen and Tusk.

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However, Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, whose country has also been hit by the floods but who did not attend today’s summit, expressed scepticism about EU help with flood recovery.

“With all due respect, if we waited for Brussels to bail us out, we’d be up to our necks in water,” he said on Thursday morning, before the summit had taken place, quoted by Politico.

The eurosceptic Orbán has often been at odds with both the European Union and with Tusk’s government. It is not known whether he was invited by Tusk to today’s meeting.

Prosecutors are fast-tracking cases against people caught looting during the ongoing floods in Poland.

Two people have also been detained for spreading disinformation, including one who dressed up as a soldier and claimed flood defences would be blown up https://t.co/ypW6MTGva5

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 19, 2024

Main image credit: Kancelaria Premiera/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.