en | de |    Press releases16.05.2008

EU flood aid: Is the British government pocketing 79m pounds?

In a letter to Reimer Böge, Chairman of the European Parliament Budget Committee, Green MEP Helga Trüpel calls for the Committee to demand an explanation from the British government regarding its use of an EU Solidarity Fund grant earmarked for flood victims in Britain last summer:

"From a statement by British Floods Recovery Minister John Healey, it has to be assumed that the British government only distributed 31m of the 110m pounds from the EU Solidarity Fund earmarked for victims of the severe floods in Britain last summer.

My expectation was that the whole EU grant would be given to the people and regions worst affected by the floods. I do not understand how the British government could be so openly naïve in declaring that they would keep the undistributed 79m pounds since they would have received the same sum out of the British rebate in any case. Solidarity between EU member states and tax payers is not a one-way street to the UK Treasury!

In my letter to Mr Reimer Böge, Chairman of the Budget Committee of the European Parliament, I request that the Committee invites Minister Healey and the EU Commissioner responsible for the Solidarity Fund to attend its next meeting on 28 May. They should clarify whether the British government has acted within the rules and spirit of the Fund. Personally, I think that the acts of the British government are highly questionable."