At the session of the General Affairs Council held in Luxembourg on June 14, 2010, Hungary and Poland made a joint application to the European Solidarity Fund (ESF) for financial assistance to mitigate the significant damage caused by heavy flooding in Central Europe since mid-May. A preliminary estimate of the damage in Hungary is under way, and the first official estimates are expected to be ready within the next two weeks.

The ESF was established in the summer of 2002 in response to the serious flooding in Central Europe so that EU Member States and states awaiting entry should gain access to European financial solidarity support to mitigate grave natural disasters. The ESF annual budget of one billion euros is handled by the European Commission. The ESF provides co-financing for Member States which require financing for urgent measures in connection with natural disasters. These include energy supply, the supply of drinking water and sewage treatment, as well as the immediate re-establishment of telecommunications, transport, health and education operations, temporary accommodation, securing the operability of disaster-management organisations, the immediate provision of prevention services infrastructure, protection of cultural heritage and the cleaning up of disaster-affected areas.

During the past eight years the European Solidarity Fund has provided support in 33 cases in various disaster situations: floods, forest fires, earthquakes, storms and droughts. Up to the present, 20 countries, among them Hungary, in 2006, have received support from the fund’s sources, amounting to 2.1 billion euros.