Considerations on COM(2024)496 - - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2024)496 - . |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2024)496 |
| date | October 21, 2024 |
(2) In order to quickly alleviate the burden on the national budgets of the Member States concerned and mitigate the risk of new territorial disparities, effective support is needed through the European Regional Development Fund (‘ERDF’) and the European Social Fund Plus (‘ESF+’) to Member States, regions, local authorities and people severely affected by such natural disasters, in addition to the resources available from the European Union Solidarity Fund.
(3) In order to provide additional flexibility to Member States affected by natural disasters a new specific objective under the Investment for jobs and growth goal should be provided to channel the financial support of the ERDF for the reconstruction in response to such disasters.
(4) Policy objective 2, under which the new specific objective should be introduced, directly supports the objectives of the European Green Deal3. The EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change4 aims at developing adaptation measures to manage climate change risks, usually in the form of disasters, such as floods, wildfire or droughts. The continuity and reinforcement of planned investments in disaster prevention and preparedness, as well as climate adaptation, should be ensured, in order to mitigate the impact of the increasingly frequent natural, including climate-induced disasters. Reconstruction efforts should not come at the expense of investments in structural long term disaster prevention and preparedness. The application of climate proofing and the “do no significant harm” principle should be ensured when investing in infrastructure to enhance the resilience of Union funded infrastructure in the face of future, more frequent and severe climate-induced disasters.
(5) In accordance with the scope of support from the ERDF as set out in Regulation (EU) 2021/1058 of the European Parliament and of the Council5, support for the reconstruction in response to natural disasters under the new specific objective may cover the restoration of damaged or destroyed infrastructure, such as public infrastructure or investment in fixed capital for businesses and equipment, including at a different location or in a format that is not identical to the original, if necessary, in a resilient and sustainable manner. Furthermore, the restoration of natural areas, biodiversity and green infrastructure, including on Natura 2000 sites, may be supported. This may include relevant reforestation related measures.
(6) In the context of reconstruction in response to natural disasters, operations based on the “build back better” principle – should be prioritised in the selection process. That principle entails the use of the recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction phases after a disaster to increase the resilience of communities through integrating disaster risk reduction measures, as indicated in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. At the same time, it should be ensured that support to the selected operations remains proportionate and presents the best relationship between the amount of support and the objective of ensuring disaster resilience. Furthermore, in case a Member State is eligible for support from the European Union Solidarity Fund to finance essential emergency and recovery operations restoring infrastructure to their condition prior to the occurrence of the natural disaster, the ERDF support may be used in a complementary manner to improve the functionality of the infrastructure affected in order to enhance its capacity, sustainability and resilience to withstand future natural disasters. In general, the ERDF support should increase the resilience and risk preparedness.
(7) In order to exclude overpayment, Member States should ensure that support covered by the ERDF or the ESF+ does not overlap with support received from other national or Union instruments or private insurance schemes.
(8) In order to respond to the impact of natural disasters, Member States should be allowed through dedicated priorities to provide a focused, fast and immediate help to alleviate the negative socio-economic consequences of such disasters. In addition, Member States should be able to support, either within or outside the dedicated priority, temporary measures for people directly affected by those disasters in the form of food and/or basic material assistance without the obligation of accompanying measures; and, where strictly necessary and justified, short-time work schemes for employees and self-employed affected by the consequences of natural disasters to retain their jobs even without active measures (unless the latter are imposed by national law) as well as measures to provide access to healthcare including for people who are not in imminent socio-economic vulnerability. Therefore, it is appropriate to provide for flexibilities for these temporary measures for a limited period of time under Regulation (EU) 2021/1057 of the European Parliament and of the Council6.
(9) The resources to support the response to natural disasters should be programmed under a dedicated priority with a co-financing rate of up to 100%. It should be recalled that Member States may make use of the possibilities for transferring allocations between cohesion policy funds provided for in Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 of the European Parliament and of the Council7 in order to increase resources available under these dedicated priorities. They may also reallocate resources from any of the policy objectives while respecting regulatory rules.
(10) The overall resources programmed under the dedicated priorities should be limited to a maximum of 10% of the initial total national allocation of the Member State for the ERDF, the ESF+ and the Cohesion Fund. They may be programmed through one or more programme amendments and may be linked to one or more disasters. The principle that payments by the Commission are to be made in accordance with budget appropriations and subject to available funding should continue to apply.
(11) In order to provide immediate support for investments for reconstruction in response to natural disasters as well as to alleviate the negative socio-economic consequences of such natural disasters, an additional amount of exceptional pre-financing should be provided with respect to the dedicated priorities. The rules applicable to those amounts of exceptional pre-financing should be consistent with the rules applicable to pre-financing provided for in Regulation (EU) 2021/1060.
(12) In order to enable Member States to fully address the consequences of natural disasters occuring as from 1 January 2024, their managing authorities should be allowed to select for support operations that have been physically completed or fully implemented before the application for the funding under the programme is submitted to the managing authority, provided that the operation is in response to such natural disaster.
(13) Regulations (EU) 2021/1058 and (EU) 2021/1057 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(14) In view of the devastating effects of the current natural disasters and the urgency to provide immediate support to Members States, it is considered necessary to use the exception to the eight-week period referred to in Article 4 of Protocol No 1 on the role of national Parliaments in the European Union, annexed to the Treaty on European Union, to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community.
(15) Given the urgency of the situation related to the natural disasters, it is appropriate that this Regulation enters into force on the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.