EU aid for droughts and fires

CYPRUS received more than €7m in aid from the EU to restore areas damaged by extended droughts and last year’s fires in Solea and Argaka.

The aid came from the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF) which also gave funds to assist in repairing damage caused by natural disasters in the UK, Cyprus, Portugal, Greece, Italy and Germany.

According to a report released on Monday on the activities of the EUSF in 2016, Cyprus last year received around €7.3m in aid for repairing damage caused from fires and droughts.

During discussion of the approval of the budget at the European Parliament, MEPs heard that from October 2015 to June 2016, Cyprus suffered from very low precipitation, combined with extremely high temperatures, leading to severe drought with serious crop failure, forest and vegetation fires and scarcity of water. The aid money is also for damage caused from two major wildfires in June 2016 that burnt an area of over 2,600 hectares of state forest.

In 2016, the European Commission received six applications for a financial contribution from the EUSF, namely Greece (earthquake of Lefkada), the United Kingdom (floods), Germany (floods in Lower Bavaria), Cyprus (droughts and fires), Portugal (Madeira fires) and Italy (earthquakes).

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.