| dc.description.abstract | Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 of 11 November 2002 establishing the EU Solidarity Fund1 (hereinafter "the Regulation"), provides that a report on the activity of the Fund in the previous year shall be presented to the European Parliament and to the Council. The present report presents the activities of the EU Solidarity Fund (hereinafter “EUSF”) during the year 2014: the treatment of new applications and the assessment of implementation reports with a view to preparing these for closure. It also addresses the Regulation amending the EUSF Regulation which was adopted in June 20142. In the course of 2014, the Commission received thirteen new applications for EUSF assistance which is above the average in terms of the number of applications. In detail, these applications concerned the flash floods in Sardinia/Italy, the Cyclone Bejisa/France, the earthquake on the island of Kefalonia/Greece, the ice storm in Slovenia, the ice & floods disaster as well as the spring floods in Croatia, the severe winter in Romania, the floods in Serbia, the spring and summer floods in Romania, the spring and summer floods in Bulgaria and the autumn floods in Italy. Seven of these applications were accepted by the Commission, two were rejected and for four applications assessments could only be completed in 20153. In financial terms, in the course of 2014, the Commission approved aid from the EUSF amounting to a total of EUR 126,725 million; details are described in chapter 3 “Financing”. In total EUR 400,806 million of aid could be paid out, namely for the flooding events in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic of 2013, the drought and fire disaster in Romania and the flooding disaster in Croatia of 2012. Annexes 1 to 4 present the applicable thresholds for mobilising the Fund for 2014, a summary of the applications received and a complete list of applications dealt with since 2002 |
